Redamancy
by airinsummer
Summary: One year after the maze trials begun, she was thrown into the maze of Group A where all the gladers mistake her for a boy at first. Although she knows life was never a fairytale, she still learns the hardest part of it all through the hard way - Growing up.
1. AN

Hello Reader!

Before you begin this fanfiction, I just want to let you know four things to take note of:

 **1\. This fanfiction takes place one year after The Maze Trials has begun.**

Which is two years before Thomas and Teresa comes in.  
So don't panic if you don't see them in the first few chapters.  
It's meant to be like that.

 **2\. My fanfiction will be long winded.**

I can honestly tell you that there will be a shitton of unexplained things in the first few chapters that might not even be explainable until very much later.

This is one of those fanfictions where Teresa isn't the first girl.

But please trust me.  
There is a reason for **everything.**

 **EVERYTHING.**

It _will_ be a little long-winded because I'm trying to be as realistic as I can –  
This isn't a cliché plot.

 **3\. Romance will take a little while**  
The characters are around 14 years old as of the first chapter.  
Please.  
Chill.  
They haven't even gone through puberty yet LOL

I want to let them and you, the reader, to get to know my OC as a person.  
I'm writing a love story, not a crush story.

 **4\. You might have to reread the book**

According to the comments and critique that I receive along the way,  
I will revise chapters every now and then.

As a perfectionist by nature, especially when it comes to writing,  
I try to deliver only the best to my readers (you)

It'll be minor changes honestly, I will definitely notify everyone if there's a huge change.  
However I really appreciate every single one of you and I want you to read only the best,  
So flip through the front few chapters whenever you're free.  
Perhaps you'll find them even more enjoyable (:

* * *

All characters belong to James Dashner, except Qiufeng and a few select others.

* * *

 **Milestones**

I still highly recommend the readers to read the first few chapters -  
but these are for people that just want to jump right in.  
I will update these as soon as I hit one.

2 Year Time Skip - Chapter 10

* * *

Before I end, I want to thank you for clicking to read Redamancy! It really means a lot to me, and I hope I don't disappoint!

Now please enjoy!


	2. Gender Confusion

When she first opened her eyes, all she noticed was the blinding sunlight above her, a slight discomfort in her chest, and then voices. Blinking rapidly a few times to clear her vision, she saw several people standing around her, above her, and immediately scrambled up in alarm from her vulnerable position. From what she could make out from their lean silhouettes against the sun, they were all boys.

"...believe it? This shank slept all the way up the box!"

"Seriously? Which keeper is he gonna get?"

"A slopper or a track-hoe y'know? Aren't they always slacking off like that?"

Whoever that was talking, laughed.

Daunted by the strangeness of the whole situation she opened her mouth to ask a question, but as she did so the mild discomfort in her chest pushed its way up her throat. Her whole body instinctively clenched up as she violently coughed up water and sucked in a deep breath of air after. Her eyes naturally shifted to her surroundings after, and she registered that she was in some kind of metal box with wooden crates around her.

The boys around her laughed again and she felt a twinge of annoyance.

"C'mon Greenie, don't have time for you to be sleeping around all day." Someone said as he squatted down and offered a hand.

She cautiously eyed him for a moment. As much as she didn't know these people, his voice sounded kind, that and there was no other way out of this box really. So she took it and he pulled her out easily into some sort of large grassland, but what made her stare in awe were the huge grey walls that towered over the field, forming a square around them. There were large breaks in the middle of the four walls, opening up into passageways that led god knows where really.

Glancing over to the one that had pulled her up, she looked him over in the light. He was young, had dirty blond hair and brown eyes, kinda looked like an elf or something. Then she glanced over to the large group of boys. They were all fairly young as well, prepubescent, perhaps around fourteen to fifteen years old age if she were to gauge from appearances.

"W-who are you?" She asked, her voice cracking towards the end. She was surprised at how much her voice shook in comparison to how calm she was. "Where am I?"

All the noise suddenly stopped and she noticed all their varied expressions changing to surprise. The boys all shot confused glances at one another, including the one with the kind voice. He eventually turned back to her, his expression uncertain.

"You... are a boy right?" He finally asked.

 _Boy?_

She gave him a confused look.

"I'm a girl." She stated, sounding insulted.


	3. Obviously

There was a moment before she heard several hushed whispers coming from the group, and the blond who helped her up was quiet for a moment, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with her yet. She took the chance to have a better look around at her surroundings and the people that lived here. It seemed they had been here for quite some time, they had a few structures up throughout the enclosed area like a shabby wooden building in one corner, a small field of crops in another and a wooden pens in the third. The last corner just held a thicket of trees that looked close to withering.

There was something that bothered her though – there were no girls in sight. She squinted and tried to look for other girls near the structures, but it seemed as if there were none unless they were all hiding. It was almost as if… This community was completely made out of boys and boys only. She felt her gut twist. She hoped not.

"Don't you shanks have better things to do?" Someone asked loudly over the whispers and the crowd parted, giving way to a dark skinned boy. They slowly dispersed with some disgruntled mumbles, and she tried to ignore the glances they threw back over their shoulders at her.

"Name's Alby." Once close enough he held out his hand. She glanced at it warily and shook quickly. "Do you remember your name?"

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth instinctively to answer, but nothing came out. She stopped, her annoyed expression changing into one of confusion. His question made her realize that she hadn't thought about her own identity, whilst worrying about the identity of the others around her and the place. Then further bewilderment followed as she realized that she wasn't able to retrieve any memories from her past, couldn't more like, because everything was wiped clean in her head.

"I guess not." Alby noticed her confusion and nodded to himself. "Well at least you're normal, 'sides from your attitude. You'll get it back in a few days."

"Newt, get her a hammock and some food, I'll inform Nick 'bout her." He continued to the other boy who nodded in response, and walked off somewhere else.

"Sorry 'bout earlier." The boy called Newt apologized with a sheepish smile as he walked her over to a sheltered area in the open, near the ramshackled wooden building. It was full of hammocks, and there was a distinct musky scent in the air. She assumed this was where they slept. "So far the box only sends up boys, and your hair does look like a boy's." He explained as he walked away to retrieve an unused hammock.

At the confirmation that this community was made out of boys and boys only, she felt a wave of discomfort wash over her. She shook it away, leaving nothing but a strange disbelief that she was the only girl around. She'll just look out for herself and tread carefully, and it would… Probably be fine.

"…So I do look like a boy." She replied dryly as she eyed him, seemingly still insulted about earlier.

"No!" Newt insisted as he opened the piece of cloth and tied one end with a rope attached to it around a wooden post. "I mean the box sends boys up all the time, so I mean we didn't expect a girl and with your short hair-"

He glanced back at her and noticed the corner of her mouth had turned up a little.

"Bloody hell, you're playing with me." He realized as he paused in his actions.

"Sorry." She managed a small laugh, trying to find positivity in her situation. "But seriously, how do I look?"

"Short black hair, dark brown eyes and fair skin… You look about fourteen, the same age as most of us." The other said as he turned around fully to study her. "You're also Asian, like a friend of mine."

"Asian…" She murmured as her fingers gently brushed over her cheek almost in wonder. It should've been surprising to her, but it wasn't. It seemed that she had retained some awareness of her identity after all, even if it was just about her race. She paused and then looked around curiously for the other Asian. The field they were enclosed in was pretty huge with boys scattered everywhere, it wouldn't be surprising that she missed out on one particular person.

Newt finished tying the hammock up and dusted off his hands, turning back to her again. He noticed her looking across the glade and smiled. "You'll see him soon, they should be on the way back."

"On the way back from outside the walls." She guessed, putting two and two together.

But Newt didn't respond, and instead talked to her about sleeping arrangements. His hammock was apparently next to hers, as he didn't want "shanks to try anything funny" as he had put it. She was curious about why he avoided the topic after she had mentioned the outside, but didn't persist. She didn't like to ask questions if it was going to sound stupid.

After that was done, they headed towards the kitchens to get something for her to eat. It was then she noticed a few boys running in from one of the gaps in the stone cage.

They rested for a while a little way from the walls as a couple more boys came running in. She gazed at the group for a moment, wondering if the Asian kid was in there when a movement caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She stared in disbelief as the heavy stone walls dragged themselves across the floor painfully, creating a horrible grinding noise. The rods from one edge fitted perfectly into the holes on the other, and eventually the gap was closed with a loud yawn.

She turned quickly to Newt in expectation for an explanation, too proud to ask why despite her confusion at the strange event. However to her disappointment he seemed to be unaffected, so she shut up. It was probably a daily occurrence for them.

"Ah, there he is." Newt said as he moved forward a few steps, apparently having spotted someone in the group of boys. "Hey Minho! Get over here for a sec will ya?"

Her attention was caught at the obvious Asian originated name, mind temporarily distracted from walls that defied all the laws of physics. Not sure what to expect and a little nervous about meeting someone familiar in a sense, she stayed back and busied herself by studying her fidgeting fingers as the faint sounds of jogging footsteps quickly approached.

After a few moments, the jogging came to a stop.

"What is it Newt?" A breathless voice asked. "Better be a good reason for making me run extra."

She played it cool for a moment, before finally glancing up to take what she hoped was an indifferent look as to who had approached them. He too was prepubescent like the rest of them, with black hair and dark eyes. He had a lean body, she could tell because he was literally drenched in sweat, making his shirt stick to his body and looked like he had just ran across the world to get here.

"We got another one of your kind here!" Newt announced as he gestured to her playfully, almost as if presenting her like some exotic object from a far land. "She came up in the box this afternoon."

" _She?"_ The boy named Minho questioned as he looked her up and down, judging her openly.

"Yes, _she_." She replied dryly.

"Well… _She's_ not even the same race as me." Minho gave an amused smile as he folded his arms and glanced at Newt who raised an eyebrow.

"Wait what?"

"She's _obviously_ Chinese." Minho shook his head when Newt seemed clueless.

"He's _obviously_ Korean." She added, rolling her eyes.

Newt sighed. "Well whatever you two are, there's _obviously_ a bloody resemblance."


	4. Her Name

During dinner, Newt gave her a brief explanation of what was what in the glade, as they called it. She now knew they were trapped in a gigantic maze, they all were brainwashed of their memories before being sent here, and a new person get sent in every month that's always a boy, until she came along. She had sat and listened without interrupting, although she had a fair amount of questions at the back of her head. The rest he said, she will either learn when their leader, Nick brought her on the tour tomorrow or as time goes by, and that was enough to stop her from asking.

"It's been roughly a year now, and we've managed to come this far as a working community." He said as he finished up his meal. "You'll get an assignment soon enough."

She groaned inwardly. First she gets sent here against her will, then gets mistaken for a boy even though she was 'clearly' a girl albeit rather flat for one, and now she has to work. Granted it's a community effort and all, but she couldn't imagine herself asking to be sent here in the first place.

"Anyway," Newt stood up with his plates. "There's been a call for a council meeting because of you, so I'll be taking my leave for the moment."

He glanced at her. "After you're done here, I want you to go and stay in the Homestead – The shelter where the hammocks are."

She nodded knowingly, she wasn't stupid.

"No really, stay there." He repeated as if he didn't trust her easy agreement.

"Even if I don't know my name, I'm not stupid enough to go wandering around dark areas I'm not familiar with." She replied dryly as she swirled the water in her glass. _Especially when I'm the only girl around a bunch of boys,_ she added inwardly to herself.

"Good that." He said after a pause. "I'll see you later then."

By now she had already noticed that the boys here not only had a working community, but even a local slang. She deduced by the sounds of the phrase he had just used that he was agreeing with her. The blond passed his dishes to the sloppers, as they called those that weren't good at any other jobs and assigned to the least desirable tasks like cleaning up, and headed for Homestead first.

She gazed thoughtfully after him for a moment, watching as Minho joined him along the way towards the shabby wooden structure. Once they entered and the door shut, she quickly finished her glass and passed her dishes to the sloppers, who stared curiously at her.

Walking briskly to the Homestead, she noticed several gladers crowded near the main door, obviously trying to listen in on whatever that was going on. She rolled her eyes as she searched for a different opening. If they were going to talk about her, she wanted to hear it.

Noticing the small enclosed room had a small hole near the top, she glanced down to note the wooden ledges along the wall.

Slowly balancing herself against the wall as she tiptoed on the ledges, she was close enough to the hole to hear bits of what they were saying. If she stretched a bit more she would be able to see them, but she didn't want to take the chance of falling into the room. It would more or less ruin her image and form undesirable first impressions amongst the keepers, as they called the leaders of each job division, and she didn't want that.

"…decide what job she's going to take." Someone was saying as she got close enough for the voices to become audible.

"She's adapting pretty fast for a Greenie, Nick." Another inputted, his voice uneasy.

She considered the past few hours, and admitted that perhaps she did appear quite calm besides the first time she spoke out of the box. However it was probably mostly because she refrained from asking too many things and tried to come to her own conclusions for fear of sounding stupid. She decided to take it as a compliment smiled to herself at the praise, because either way appearing calm was good wasn't it?

"I know what you're trying to say, but she cannot be a runner." An unfamiliar voice, probably Nick's gauging from the authority in it. "At least, not for now."

She remembered something that Newt mentioned earlier, about the runners. They were the ones that mapped out the maze, looking for a way out. Minho, the Asian boy she met earlier was obviously a runner and since he was in the meeting now, he was probably the keeper of that job. It seemed like a curious job, one that sought answers, where she would be able to satisfy all her questions by herself.

"There's no lack of runners right now anyway." Minho's voice came right on cue.

"She definitely can't be a builder." A voice she didn't recognize.

"A slicer maybe?" There were murmurs of consideration. "I heard girls are good with animals."

That did _not_ sound like a job that involved _just_ taking care of animals.

"She could probably be a Med-Jack, girls are very meticulous aren't they?"

"Aren't girls the best at cooking?" Another voice argued back.

"Enough!" She recognized Alby's voice when the room grew noisy. "We'll let her try out between the three, and whichever she's better at, she'll do. For now we'll take her as one of our own, since we can't make anything out of her sudden appearance."

There were sounds of agreements and she sighed in relief, at least she wasn't going to be a slopper. Although these boys were acting as if they had never interacted with another girl in their entire life, girls were obviously so much more than just cooks, animal caretakers and nurses. But of course, if this was really the first time they've ever encountered a girl, which was believable since their community was made out of boys only and they _did_ have the memories wiped out, so she guessed she could be nice and forgive them for being dense idiots.

"Tomorrow I'll give her the tour, and then she can try being a slicer for the rest of the day." Alby decided. "The day after, you'll take her Clint, and then Fry."

There were sounds of the keepers getting ready to leave the room and she realized they were going to end. She turned, wanting to jump off the ledge but slipped in her hurry, falling sideways. There was a loud thump, and even though she had managed to curl up in time and roll to minimize damage, pain rushed to the side of her head.

Through the throbbing she heard Nick say one last thing.

"Meeting dismissed."

She groaned as she got up hurriedly, holding the side of her head. Ignoring the dull ache in her leg where it had taken some bruising too, she quickly made for her hammock. She would rather deal with her injuries later, than get caught listening into their meeting.

But then, halfway a bright light blinded her vision, and her surroundings changed. She was standing in a queue, in the middle of a large crowd. A boy that looked slightly younger was holding her hand. He looked up to her and smiled.

 _A memory._ She realized.

And then she was being violently shaken. "Hey, HEY!"

"Woah what?" She yelped, tearing herself from whoever that was shaking her.

Blinking, she relaxed when she saw it was just Newt and Minho.

"You okay?" Newt asked, his voice concerned. "You were just standing ther-"

"Qiufeng." She suddenly said, cutting him off.

"What?" Newt frowned at the unfamiliar language.

"Her name." Minho explained with a shrug.

She looked up at them and smiled, creating a dimple at the corner of her mouth. "My name is Qiufeng."


	5. Assignment

The next morning Qiufeng was awakened by the sounds of boys rising from their hammocks. They were hushed, but the Chinese girl who wasn't yet used to sleeping here was easily awakened. It was a little weird sleeping in a room full of boys, she couldn't really fall asleep in the first few hours after settling in for the night but eventually fatigue took hold of her.

She stirred in her sleep and opened her eyes drowsily, curiously watching the boys pack up their belongings. Yawning, she sat up, startling a few of them before they went back to packing. She assumed these were the Runners. It was pretty easy deducing that from the fact that they weren't there when she arrived yesterday, and only came back at sundown with Minho.

Qiufeng glanced around at the thought of the Korean boy. He was the keeper of the Runners, so he should be up too, but he wasn't around the Homestead and his hammock was empty.

When the boys got up to leave she slowly stood up as well, blanket draped around her and all, and after a moment of hesitation, followed one group of them across the field to the East wall. She felt a little self-conscious of the glances they gave her as they walked along, but didn't say anything. When they reached the large stone doors they stopped right outside, waiting for it to open.

The Chinese girl busied herself by staring upwards and gaping at the looming gates, hugging the blanket close to her body. She had never really seen anything quite like it, it was almost so surreal, to see walls this huge. It was dizzying to look up at them from down where she was, and she struggled to keep her balance in check while stubbornly refusing to tear her eyes away from the top.

"What're you doing here greenie?" A voice from behind her asked and she jumped, almost falling over.

"I- I was just curious." She stammered defensively, turning back to face Minho. "Also my name is Qiufeng if you remember."

"Your name is greenie as long as you're the newest." He smirked. He didn't say anything about her curiosity, as long as she didn't take a step out of those gates he figured.

She frowned, and was about to retort when there was a loud groaning sound. They both glanced upwards to watch the gate slowly pull itself open as did the other three around the glade, making the same cringe inducing grinding noises like yesterday. She peered out even before the door was fully opened, and saw a long pathway down with many other visible paths connected to it. Vines draped across the large stone walls, and ivy flourished everywhere. The Korean looked back at her, slightly amused. "Satisfied?"

"Mm."

"Good that." Minho said as he sent the other boys off first. He glanced up to someone behind her and she looked back to see Alby. They both nodded at each other and Minho turned away from them, running out of sight within seconds. She stared after him, wondering where he was headed to and what was out there.

The dark skinned boy then guided her towards another section of the inner wall that had all the glader's names etched into it. Some were struck out, and it didn't take much to know what happened to them.

Alby handed her a knife. "Qiufeng, was it?" He asked, her name sounding weird in his accent.

She nodded.

"Nick is busy, so I'll be taking you on the tour. Let me tell you a little about the early days..."

* * *

Later on after the tour, she was sent off to Winston, Keeper of the Slicers.

"We handle the animals, making sure they have enough water, grooming them, cleaning up their klunk..." Winston threw her a packet of seed as he gestured to the pens. "We'll be feeding them now."

Qiufeng caught it while wondering if the word klunk was what she thought it was, and followed the other to the chicken coop. It didn't take long for her to find out that klunk was exactly what she thought it was. But besides that she didn't mind feeding the animals, and actually got along pretty well with them. The goats were a bit terrifying though, one chewed her sleeve off when she wasn't paying attention.

Towards the end of the day when it seemed like all the hard work was done, Winston beckoned to her to follow him into the barn. "Now, usually an hour before dinner we need to prep the ingredients for Frypan to cook, so for your first time, we'll slaughter a couple of chickens to start." He bent down and picked up one of the chickens that was wandering around the floor by the neck, making it flail and screech in panic.

Oh right. _Slicer._

Qiufeng couldn't hide the horror on her face.

* * *

"So in the end you didn't?" Newt asked during dinner, amused at the new design of her one sleeved shirt.

"Nope." She shook her head and poked at her food with a fork, the incident earlier had made her lose her appetite.

"You eating that?" Minho who had joined them, gestured to her bowl.

She handed it over without hesitation.

* * *

The next day it was time to try out with the Med-Jacks.

Clint was a great mentor, and all she had to do throughout the day was treat small cuts and bruises, mostly from the Slicers or the Builders. Qiufeng was pretty satisfied with herself the whole day, she felt like she could actually be a Med-Jack! Or so she thought.

Just as she was complimenting herself, yells came from outside the door as Minho bust in with an injured runner. "This shank had an accident, I think his shucking leg is broken." He huffed as he set the moaning runner on the bed.

Qiufeng stared at the horrific wound that had flesh hanging off the side and swallowed slowly at the slightly exposed bone, becoming aware of a fear she didn't know she had. But it was okay, she could still handle this. _She could still handle this._

"I've got the numbing solution!" Clint yelled and settled beside her.

Okay, it's just numbing medication, she could apply it no problem. Blood and flesh? No problem, she could just wash her hands later an-

"Right, inject the numbing solution to numb the pain, I'll guide you." Clint said, pointing a needle upwards and checking if it was working. He turned to the girl and held out the syringe. She felt her stomach turn at the sight of the tiny needle and she froze.

Qiufeng went pale.

* * *

"You passed out?" Newt burst out laughing along with Minho who was relaying the story.

"Shut it." The girl growled as she handed her share of dinner over to Minho, who seemed to be laughing too hard to eat.

* * *

"Heard you had a rough time over the past few days."

Qiufeng glanced up wearily to look at her teacher for the day. "Don't even talk about it."

Frypan laughed as he handed her a cutting board and pointed to some garlic hanging over a shelf. "You'll be okay with garlic right?"

The girl nodded and got to work. She washed vegetables and meat, chopped them and seasoned them for Frypan to cook. The dark skinned boy almost seemed impressed when she took over the stove for a while when he needed to take a drink of water. To be honest she herself was surprised that she turned out to be decent in the kitchen, she was expecting herself to burn water, faint at the sight of raw meat or at least something bad to happen gauging from the past few incidents over the last two days.

"Do you want to work in the kitchens?" He asked at the end of the day when they were done prepping dinner.

Qiufeng's eyes widened but she quickly nodded.

* * *

"You're a cook?" Newt raised an eyebrow, and Minho choked on his dinner.

"Well, it isn't official, but everyone can probably tell I'm better at being a cook rather than a slicer or a med-jack." Qiufeng gave a quick glare to the Korean boy, before smiling. She took off her apron and joined the other two for a proper meal, finally.

Meanwhile, both Minho and Newt mentally reminded themselves not to laugh so hard at her again, lest she poison their food.

* * *

AN: Trivia time! I actually struggled with the decision of giving Qiufeng a job between the three above.

Which one did you guys think she would be? xD

Do consider leaving a review if you've enjoyed this chapter! ^^


	6. One of the Boys

The day after, Nick officially made her part of the kitchens. Qiufeng was pretty contented with learning how to make stew and fry eggs, seemed like a much better option compared to slaughtering animals and looking at icky wounds. She shuddered at the thought of handling needles again and shook it off before she could think any further.

"Qiufeng!" Fry called and she snapped out of her thoughts. She still wasn't used to hearing her name in an accent.

"Coming!" She replied as she quickly finished seasoning the chicken meat and hurried over to the chef.

The Chinese girl looked curiously at the large spread of food that was already on the table, it was at least two times the amount of food they usually had on the few days that she had been here. She handed over the chicken she had seasoned and walked along the length of the table, admiring the feast that they had prepared. She wondered what it was for and tried to come up with her own answer, but nothing.

"Why's there so much food today?" She turned back towards Fry and casually asked.

"Oh, thought either Newt or Minho would've told you." The chef replied indifferently as he plopped the chicken into a pan. "Every time a Greenie comes in, they'll usually throw a celebration, but because the creators thought it'd be funny to throw in a shucking girl and confuse everyone, yours was postponed until today."

"C-celebration?" Qiufeng stammered, forgetting to play it cool while hoping they didn't have a thing where they embarrass the new kids. If she had known earlier, she would've just told them not to bother, she didn't really fancy being in the spotlight, especially amongst a group of boys she barely even knew.

"Don't worry about it." Frypan noticed her nervousness and laughed at her. "It'll be fun."

Qiufeng doubted it, but gave a small laugh to indicate she had heard the other.

Throughout dinner preparations, she could tell the rest of the glade was excited for the night. There was a vibe in the air as everyone did their jobs, and excited chatter wherever she turned. As Fry finally let her go for the day, Qiufeng looked up and noticed in the middle of the glade now there was a hill of wood. She wondered if they were going to have a bonfire tonight.

"C'mon greenie!" A voice called out to her from nearby the wood. It was Alby. "We're gonna light it up and you have to throw in one of the fire torches!"

She felt ticked off that half the boys were still referring to her as greenie even though her name was back already but headed down anyway. Her eyes darted about looking for either Newt or Minho along the way down. It was weird when they weren't around with her, they were the ones that were the closest to her at the moment, and the rest of the boys… She didn't know if she was thinking too much or if they all just seemed to avoid her. Qiufeng gave up looking for them as she approached Alby, turning her attention to what was in his hand.

Alby held out to her a piece of wood that was already flaming from the end and she took it gingerly, watching sparks of fire fly from the burning wood.

Minho and Newt who were a little way from Homestead, noticed her take the flaming piece of wood and stopped their business to watch.

"Remind me of the time we first lit the bonfire." Newt chuckled as he watched the fire dance in her eyes.

"You mean, almost set the glade on fire?" Minho replied dryly as the other shot him a glare.

There was a pause as Alby readied the other boys and they all took a step back, flinging the torches into the wood pile at the same time. There was a blinding white before it faded to red as the wood burst into flames, and the other boys cheered. Qiufeng gazed upwards, watching the flames hungrily lick at the sky. The glowing embers of the bonfire leaped and danced, flashing in the hot swirling air before cascading to earth, and she wondered if they were perhaps celebrating their freedom.

From the back, her fair skin was illuminated with a fierce glow, her short ruffled black hair dyed red and orange from the flames. Her silhouette was small against the bonfire but it seemed to hold a strength of its own, and as she glanced back at Alby, it was as though her eyes had turned a brilliant amber.

"She seems to belong with the flames." Minho murmured as he watched her from a distance.

There was a moment as they watched her laugh with Alby for a second before the leader moved on to interact with another group, leaving her alone by the bonfire. She stood there for a second, as if not sure what to do, before moving off alone to a side.

Qiufeng groaned as she sat down a little way from the fire, she felt really out of place here… Why on earth did the creators think it was a good idea to chuck her into a group full of boys?

"Hey, greenie." A voice sounded from above and she glanced up to see Newt and Minho standing behind her. It was Minho that spoke as they settled down beside her, one on each side.

"Greenie?" Qiufeng repeated a little too sweetly, inwardly relieved to see them. "Do you want worms in your food?"

"No thanks!" Newt laughed. "Why're you here anyway? Shouldn't the guest of honor be enjoying the party?"

She shook her head when Newt mentioned guest of honor, she was clearly no guest, and there was nothing honourable about being stuck in a maze with no memories. Also how was she supposed to enjoy the party when there was literally nothing to enjoy around here? The food was good tonight, yeah sure but besides that there was nothing else to do unless you had a bunch of friends to socialize with, and she was pretty sure the boys were avoiding her.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, I mean I don't know if you guys couldn't tell, but I literally only know less than ten boys around here."

"So?" Newt raised an eyebrow. "Make friends then!"

"It's. Awkward." Qiufeng envied at how easy it sounded, just make friends right? Says Newt, the boy whom was already friends with everyone.

Minho laughed as he stood up and offered a hand to her. "C'mon, I'll show you how to break the ice with those shuck-faces, ain't too hard."

She glanced at him for a moment before at his hand and then tried to take it as casually as she could while Newt looked at Minho suspiciously.

The Korean brought them over to where a bunch of boys were gathered, making a rather big racket. She raised an eyebrow at him as he pushed his way through the ring and beckoned to her from the front. Qiufeng looked weirdly at him, but followed, until she was in clear view of what was happening in the ring.

There were two boys standing inside a poorly drawn ring in the sand, and they were tussling together, head to head. The smaller of the two was Charles, a runner, and the other was a boy she had seen around before, but had never talked to. The bigger boy obviously had an advantage, and there was a moment of tension before he pushed Charles outside the ring, inducing loud cheers from the crowd.

"Gally." Minho called and the bigger boy looked up, chest heaving from the tussle. "Mind if I have a game with Qiufeng?"

"What?" Newt sounded incredulous as he made his way to the front. "You can't do that you shuck-face, she's a bloody girl!"

Qiufeng seemed taken aback by Minho's sudden challenge as well, but she had a poker face hiding her disbelief. Did he really think she would be able to bond with the boys by scuffling with them?

"So?" The Korean made his way to the other side of the ring where Gally had cleared off to stand at the side. "It'll be fine, I'll make the rules simpler for her."

"Instead of having to push my whole body out of the ring, as long as she gets any body part out, she wins."

He turned his eyes to the girl who was trying her best to continue poker facing, despite her heart hammering against her chest. "That okay with you?"

"Yeah." She nodded, trying to keep her voice steady. There were cheers as she gingerly stepped into the ring, what had she just agreed to? Tussle with Minho?

"Ready?" He asked with a grin.

 _Obviously freaking not?_

"Yeah okay." Qiufeng breathed.

"Go!" Someone yelled, and all she saw was Minho dashing right at her. She panicked, but couldn't react, and felt him ramming into her. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground. Her mind urged her to avoid embarrassment and she sat up quickly, spitting out sand. Qiufeng wiped her mouth with the back of her fist.

"Aww, go easy on her man!"

"Yeah c'mon you shuck-face, she's just a girl!"

She gritted her teeth as someone hauled her up. "You okay?" Minho asked as she shook her head and regained her balance.

"Yeah, I can go again." She took a deep breath and faced Minho who looked a little awkward, perhaps he had used _too_ much strength than he had intended.

"It's okay, just do what you did again." Qiufeng reassured as she quickly formed a plan in her head. It may not be a win, but she could at least try.

They went back to their positions and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She could do this.

"Go!"

Minho didn't change tactics, dashing right at her, but she ducked right as he came near enough. She shoved her elbow into his chest and he staggered backwards at the sudden attack. Coming back up, Qiufeng felt an adrenaline rush as she stepped sideways and with all her strength, pushed the larger boy unto the floor.

There was a short 'oof' coming from Minho as he hit the floor, but he wasn't done. Quickly propping himself up, he twisted his body upright and swept the floor with one leg, feeling it connect with Qiufeng's feet.

Then in a split second as he watched his opponent fall he realized, he was tussling with _a girl!_ In the excitement of a fight he had forgotten again and went all out for a moment. He winced and prepared to hear a thud as she hit the ground, but there was none.

Qiufeng felt her body twist instinctively in the air, and she landed on her hands before flipping herself backwards once, and then tumbling over uninjured. There was a moment before some of the boys began to cheer.

"Not… Bad." Minho eventually said as he breathed.

"Hey! Minho's hand is out of the ring!" Someone called out and the Korean glanced down to see his palm just on the outside of the circle.

There were louder cheers this time as the boys crowded around Qiufeng and passed her a drink, patting her on the back. Some were saying good job, and some calling her name, the girl felt a little disorientated as the rest of the boys were finally able to connect with her.

"See? I knew she'd be okay." Minho said through short breaths as he stood beside Newt and watched the girl make a face at the drink.

"Haven't seen a handstand in ages." Newt commented. "Think she might've been a gymnast?" He joked.

Minho shook his head, such words didn't have a place in their world now.

* * *

AN: Trivia time! Hope you guys paid attention to the chapter, a small part of it has some relevance in the future :

Please consider leaving a review if you guys have enjoyed this chapter, it really means a lot to me! (:


	7. Grievers

The next day she awakened from a touch of a hand on her shoulder, and her eyes darted open. Her body clock was such that she woke up on time for each day without needing anyone to help, so she panicked a little inside. She turned quickly to face whoever it was, before another hand was placed over her mouth.

Qiufeng let a squeak of fear escape her, but then relaxed at the sight of Minho shushing her. "It's just me."

Once he had let go of her mouth, she sat up and breathed deeply, calming herself down. Glancing up to the Korean boy, he beckoned to her as he started walking away. What could he possibly want from her at this ungodly hour? Even the runners were still sleeping!

She gave him a suspicious look that he responded to by rolling his eyes, but followed him anyway, blanket draped around her and all.

After getting out of the Homestead and successfully not waking anyone else, Minho broke into a run across the glade. Qiufeng followed, reluctantly bringing herself to run so early in the morning. He stopped once they had reached the west wall.

"Okay Feng." He said once they had neared the humongous wall, and Qiufeng felt herself raising an eyebrow at the new nickname. It was better than 'greenie' she supposed, but still.

"Feng?" She repeated before he could continue with his reason for bringing her out so early.

"Saying your whole name is mouthful." Minho replied simply, giving her an amused smirk.

"Minho is a mouthful, how about just 'Min'?" Qiufeng replied as she folded her arms.

"No." He made a face and continued before the other could interject anymore. "So you probably know about everything you need to know inside the glade, but seeing you curious about the Maze a few days ago made Alby worried and so he wants to make sure you know what's out there."

Minho stepped up to the wall and pushed away the thick ivy, revealing a dirty window about two feet wide. She raised an eyebrow at the revelation but obliged and stared into it, intrigued by the endless corridors and mysterious air, but after a while it… Got boring. She glanced back to Minho.

"Wow. Very interesting." Qiufeng said monotonously, tugging her blanket closer to her.

"Just wait." He said, seemingly not amused any more than she was.

She stood there looking at the window like an idiot, thinking about all the sleep she was missing. Minutes passed, and there was still nothing that looked of any interest. Until she heard it. There was an eerie metallic sound coming closer and instinctively she backed away from the window, uncertainty etched into her face. Whirling and sounds of gears turning, she felt her stomach twisting as the sounds grew louder. Then finally, she saw it.

Eyes widening, she stood frozen in place as she stared at the half machine, half flesh creature. She could roughly make out saws and blades protruding along its body, but goodness knows what she had missed in the dim lighting. It was painfully slow in passing, as if it knew that it was being watched fearfully behind the glass and seemed to enjoy her mental torment. It seemed like eternity until that creature had passed entirely. She continued staring at the window, opening her mouth to say something. Nothing came out but a strangled gasp.

Her several days here had been light hearted, happy even, but now the girl realized the severity of the situation she was in. Everything outside the walls screamed of danger, now that she had saw that monstrosity.

"Still feel like going out there?" She heard Minho ask, but couldn't find something to reply with.

Qiufeng felt herself tearing up a little and Minho, sensing something was wrong, stepped to her side. He hesitated, but awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay." He reassured, squeezing gently. "Nothing gets through those walls."

Qiufeng took a moment to breathe.

"I'm not worried about myself." She finally managed to say shakily, looking up to the taller boy. "But how do you keep running even with those… Things out there?"

"We call them grievers." Minho told her. "They only come out at night, so it's safe to run in the day, but by evening we have to get back here, there's been a few incidents of griever attacks happening just before the walls close."

"They'll try to kill you at first sight, but if you're lucky, you'll escape with just a sting and just go through the changing." He said, looking out into the window.

"Sting?" She couldn't stop herself from quivering. "Changing?"

"If they can't get your life, they'll at least try to land a sting on you." He explained as if it was some sort of science lesson. "If you make it back to the glade, the med-jacks will inject some griever serum into you, and you'll just go through a few days of hellish pain before coming back to us."

"What happens if you don't get treated?" She asked, her voice now quiet.

Minho glanced down at her. "You die."

Qiufeng hugged her blanket closer to her body as she processed the information she was given by Minho, before a flashing red light caught her attention, out of the corner of her eye.

Jumping back in fear, she felt her back hit against Minho's chest, and he caught her firmly by the shoulders. "Relax, it's just a beetle blade."

"B-beetle blade?" She stammered.

"It's how the creators watch us, for whatever jacked up reason they might have." He steered her away from the window and the beetle blade, heading back towards Homestead. "Think you've seen enough for today."

"Mm." She replied as she let him bring her along. After what she had seen today, she just wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the week and pretend nothing happened. Nothing but the touch of Minho's hands on her shoulders at least.

She couldn't keep her mind off the griever for the rest of the day, and was particularly edgy, though everyone was sympathetic, it seemed like they all knew that she had woken up to a nightmare. Still, it bothered her to no end that they were stuck in a trap with monsters all around them, regardless of whether they came out only at night.

Still, she admired all the runners for being able to still go out there, even with the dangers. Though to be honest, she wished that they were eating better having noticed them only pack dinner leftovers for their lunches outside. Qiufeng quickly finished up dinner preparations, and was getting ready to call the glade for dinner when a piercing scream interrupted her thoughts. She whipped her head towards the source like everyone else and saw a boy being dragged by another two boys. His face was unrecognizable from afar.

"Shank's been stung!" One of the boys yelled as the others came over to help them with the struggling boy.

 _Stung?_

Qiufeng felt a sense of dread fill her as much as she was curious to see what was happening.

Setting down the bottle of pepper she was holding, she headed straight down to where the commotion was. She pushed her way through the crowd, and upon seeing that the boy who was writhing on the ground had blond hair, a strange sense of relief washed over her.

The larger boy from the ring yesterday, Gally, was the one that got stung, but nothing prepared her for the way he was acting. Snarling and snapping at anyone that came too near, it was as if he had been reduced to a wild animal. His eyes, which used to be blue, were now angry and bloodshot.

Nick stepped forward from the group of boys and yanked the other's shirt up, the sudden movement catching her eye and her hand flew to her mouth as she caught sight of a horrible puncture in the other's skin. Red raw flesh was exposed to the air, blue and green veins were prominently jutting out painfully from his skin, like worms crawling out of the wound.

There were sounds of disgust from the boys.

"Med-jacks!" Alby yelled over the commotion. "Get him injected quickly!"

Qiufeng stumbled backwards trying to swallow the whole sight and hide her horrified expression but couldn't until suddenly, someone covered her eyes and walked her away from the commotion, another hand firmly gripping her arm just below the shoulder. At first she panicked but the scent of sweat, the warmth of a slightly heaving chest against her back and the sound of short husky breaths near her ear was unmistakeable and she felt herself relax into Minho's arms.

* * *

AN: Hey guys! I actually enjoyed writing the part where Feng first sees the griever the most in this whole chapter, what was your favorite part? (:

If you enjoyed this chapter please consider reviewing! (:


	8. Brother

Once they had reached Homestead, Minho let go of the girl that he was holding and sat her down on her hammock. He looked her up and down for a moment, placing both hands on his hips before finally asking, "Why did you go?"

"I… I was curious." Qiufeng replied after a pause, looking away. Her hands were clasped tightly together on her lap, her shoulders stiff.

"So now you need a psychiatrist or something?" He rolled his eyes as he looked at the girl who was avoiding eye contact. "Talk about your feelings as you looked at Gally?"

"Hey, I didn't know it was going to look so bad, you guys told me stung so I assumed stung by a needle, not by a freaking polearm!" She spat, eyes flashing as she whipped her head around to glare at the other.

He raised an eyebrow at her, surprised by the fierce glow in her eyes that he had never seen before and opened his mouth to speak when a bloodcurdling scream echoed across the glade. Minho turned nonchalantly towards the sound while Qiufeng jumped and stared for a moment before both of them glanced back at each other, his gaze unwavering as he noticed the uncertainty in her eyes.

"Well, that's the changing." He shrugged as he turned to leave.

She thought for a moment to stop him but decided not to. With a last glance over his shoulder, Minho jogged away.

Over the next two days the glade was graced hourly by Gally's showcase of his vocal capacity, and Qiufeng flinched whenever she heard the screams coming from Homestead. Today was the third day, and she was going to be delivering food to the Med-jacks in place of Fry, who was busy with the new stock of supplies. Luckily though, it seemed as if Gally was calming down already, the screams gradually getting weaker throughout the day and eventually dying off an hour or so before dinner.

 _Okay, let's get this done and over with._

She took a deep breath as she stood outside the room Gally was in. Giving the door a polite knock, there was a grunt of acknowledgment before she pushed opened the door with her shoulder, her hands occupied with carrying a large tray full of food.

Coming in, a faint medical scent greeted her as she noticed in surprise that Gally was finally untied and sitting upright on the bed, Clint taking his pulse. "Just set it on the table Fry." The Med-Jack absent-mindedly said without looking up, staring fixatedly at the other boy's wrist.

"Not Fry, but okay." Qiufeng replied cheerfully as she set down the tray on a table opposite the beds.

"Oh Qiufeng." Clint looked up in surprise at her presence. He glanced at the listless boy for a moment as if indecisive, before getting up and looking over to where Qiufeng was laying out the dishes. He actually wanted to ask Fry to do it for him, but since Fry wasn't around perhaps it would be alright to ask Qiufeng, it wouldn't take so long after all. Clint coughed before speaking, "I'm going to let Nick know that Gally is done changing, could… Could you watch him for a sec?"

"Me?" She blinked in surprise as she stopped in her actions and stood upright. She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth as she looked over to Gally over Med-Jack's shoulder. Qiufeng was a little uneasy being left in a room alone with someone she wasn't familiar with, but he seemed harmless enough, sitting at the edge of the bed, back hunched and face hidden. She turned back to Clint with a small smile, "sure."

He returned it wearily, thanking her briefly as he walked past. There was an audible click from the door as it closed behind her, leaving her alone with Gally. She wondered if perhaps Clint stayed up all night looking after boys when they went through the changing, but she could always think about that later. Holding the tray close to her body, she stayed close to the door as she eyed Gally, wondering if perhaps it was safe should she try to talk to him.

"Why?" There was a hoarse voice from the bed and she glanced up quickly, startled at the sudden question. The other had looked up, directly at her. His eyes were unreadable from her position, but his voice seemed a little pissed.

"W-why?" She repeated as calmly as she could, trying to hide her confusion.

"Why are you here?" He asked again, this time standing up and walking over to her.

Qiufeng felt the alarm bells go off in her head as she took a step back cautiously, feeling her breathing quicken. "How would I know?" She replied defensively, trying to keep her voice from trembling.

"Don't joke with me shuck face, of course you would know!" The boy snapped, slamming his palm into the wall harshly and making her jump. "Y… You and your brother were always beside them… They never _ever_ let you out of their sight…" His voice seethed as he spoke and now that he was this close, she could see his face.

He seemed delirious, furious eyes darting all over her face as if searching for anything he could find in her expression to accuse her with. His mouth was clenched together, lips pulled back in a fierce snarl as he breathed heavily, waiting for a response from her. He was too close for comfort, she realized as she couldn't find a way to slip out without any physical contact with him.

"B-Brother…?" Qiufeng couldn't help repeating, her eyes widening in bewilderment at his words. At the same time she felt relief tinge her confusion, hearing chatter coming a little way from the door. She shut her mouth for the time being in case speaking would agitate him, hoping that Gally wouldn't do anything stupid for the next few seconds.

"Always so precious to them…" The boy continued mumbling nonsensically when suddenly the door swung open, and it felt as if an invisible dam was lifted within as relief flooded through her. She turned quickly at the noise to see Newt, Minho and Clint standing in the doorway, their conversation stopping short when they saw what was happening.

"What the bloody hell?" Newt was the first to recover from the sight, followed by Minho who went into a rage, pushing Gally across the room into the adjacent wall. "You little slinthead!" He hissed as he raised his fist to punch the other, who had fallen to the floor without so much of a fight.

"Wait!" Qiufeng panicked as Newt stood in front of her, placing his hands on both her arms in a comforting gesture. She was glad they came in when they did, but she didn't want Gally to get beaten up either, poor Clint was already swamped with work! "He didn't do anything to me really!"

"Don't even speak up for this worthless shank Feng." Minho spat but relented when Newt gestured for him to step aside.

Minho walked away, his enraged eyes not leaving Gally for a second until he tore his gaze away to look at Qiufeng, who seemed more confused than scared. "You okay?" He asked, as he gave her a quick glance over. "Was supposed to wait for Nick and Alby. They're scratching their heads over some supplies so we decided to come up to ask this slinthead about the griever, good thing we did."

She nodded, briefly registering what he had said, eyes still fixated on Gally whom Newt was trying to reason with in a low voice. She approached them slowly after the other had seemed to calm down, and exchanged a glance quickly at Newt. He nodded his head towards the larger boy and showed no signs of objection – so she spoke.

"Gally, just now you mentioned something about me having a… A brother?" She asked quietly, and at the question both Minho and Newt glanced at her.

The other was silent for a moment, still slumped against the wall, and she thought that he wouldn't speak anymore.

"You and your brother." Gally suddenly said just as Qiufeng was ready to give up and leave, his eyes still on the floor. "The Creators would keep telling us how _precious_ you two were, and we were never allowed near you, like some kind of… of… _Prized pet_." He spat the last two words out before pausing, looking up at her warily. "I wonder why they would let something so precious into the maze."

* * *

AN: I hope you guys enjoyed the little plot escalation in this chapter! :D

As always, please consider reviewing if you've liked this chapter! (: I'd love to hear from you!


	9. Woman

Afterwards, Gally had been thrown into the slammers for two nights, and both Minho and Newt disclosed this information to the rest of the keepers in a meeting they had. However, by listening to them through the hole, she knew that they had no answers either, and were just going to leave it for now. Clint had apologized profusely to her even though she told him it wasn't his fault, and eventually he told her to look for him should she ever need a favour in the future, to make up for it.

The next morning, Qiufeng was rudely awakened by a bad cramp in her stomach. Still somewhat half asleep, she groaned and turned in her hammock, trying to ignore the pain but it seemed to just make it worse. Eventually after tossing and turning a few times the cramp's persistence won and she gave up, sitting up and ruffling the back of her head furiously in frustration. These few days have been nothing but tiring, she just wanted a day where she could sleep in peace.

Reluctantly getting up, she wondered if there was anything in the kitchen she could use to make herself a warm drink to get rid of the dull ache, but decided to take a shower first. Last night seemed to be particularly humid, her clothes stuck to her skin in various places all over her body and she felt disgusting.

Making her way to the showers (more like cubicles with just a pail of water and scoop inside) she closed the door behind her and undressed, the chill in the morning air making her shudder slightly. Picking up the scoop and filling it with water, a look of uncertainty crossed her face for a moment as if she wasn't sure this was the best decision.

But glancing between her dirty clothes and the pail of water, the choice was obvious. Holding her breath and squeezing her eyes shut, she braced herself for the oncoming onslaught and lifted the scoop over her head quickly.

The blast of cold water woke her up instantly. Letting out the breath she was holding in one shot and gasping, she did a few small jumps on the ground while rubbing her body furiously. "Brr!" She shivered, shaking her head a few times before digging the scoop into the pail again and over her head.

So. Frigging. Cold.

She was definitely going to complain about this later to someone, she didn't know who was going to be her victim yet, but she was definitely going to complain.

From the corner of her eye, she saw something thin slither along the floor and jumped backwards, 'snake' being the first thing that popped into her head. She laughed at herself nervously when she realized it was just a small trail of blood, and was about to turn back to continue showering. Then she stopped.

 _BLOOD._

Her eyes gradually widened as she retraced the thin trail of blood backwards towards her, and then her feet, and up her legs…

 _Oh._

 _My._

 _God._

 _I'm becoming a woman._

* * *

Running over to the med room, she had stuffed her towel there temporarily there was really no other choice, she figured the chances of an all boy colony having pads or tampons were around… Zero percent, but for now perhaps she could find a... Packet of tissues or something, she didn't know! Anything strong enough to dam Lucifer's waterfall. But if she put it like that, perhaps she might actually need to say a few prayers to a god she didn't believe in for it to work…

Rummaging through the cupboards inside the room, she dug out everything in order to scour every nook and cranny of the drawers. She mentally apologized to Clint for making a mess, and promised to pack it up as soon as she found suitable to use for seven whole freaking days. Though she heard before that the timing between girls were different, so she hoped that hers would be significantly shorter, or else this was going to be a significantly horrible week.

She eventually managed to replace her towel (now horribly bloodstained, she would probably have to hide it and wash it herself later) with the remaining wads of paper towels stashed at the very back of the drawers, and sat back down in a mess of bandages and plasters of the like. She scratched the back of her head, she had herself covered for at least a day but if she didn't manage to find a six day solution soon, the boys were going to find out, and it would be… She didn't even want to think about it.

Just then the door crashed open and she started at the sound, quickly shoving the towel onto the other side of her body to hide it. She looking up to see Newt standing in the doorway.

"Feng!" He exclaimed as he made his way over, chest heaving as if he had been running. He had picked up the nickname from Minho a day earlier, unsurprisingly. "Knew you would be here, where're you hurt?" He demanded, looking her over. "You've got half the glade up and looking for you, you shuck face!"

"W-what?" She stammered. Oh god, she probably missed out a bloodstain while washing just now.

"Don't bloody what me you lil' shank." Newt scolded furiously. "Minho got up this morning and noticed you were missing, _and_ your hammock was covered in shucking blood!"

" _Oh_." She managed to squeak out as realization dawned on her that she didn't bother checking her hammock for blood, she should've known better, the cramps were like _a sign_ this morning.

"So?" Newt looked her over again, before noticing something red peeking out behind the girl. As she struggled to think of an excuse to give, which he was totally not going to believe, he darted out before she could react and grabbed the item, which turned out to be a blood stained cloth.

Before he could even hold it out and dig out the answer from her, Qiufeng reacted like lightning. She frantically snatched it back before he could hold it any longer, and winced at the sight of the blood on his hand. Vulgarities like no other were streaming through her head, some of which she didn't know she even had knowledge of.

"Are you going to tell me now?" He held out the hand that had blood on it, as if to call her out on her bluff.

"W-well..." She began slowly, while her mind worked frantically to find a suitable excuse for the blood. Eventually after a very long moment, she sighed and peered up at Newt who was impatiently waiting for her response. He was definitely not going to believe anything else but the truth, and there was nothing she could give but the truth honestly, it wasn't like she could conjure up a fake injury within these few minutes anyway.

Qiufeng averted her eyes and bit her lower lip, she couldn't believe she was going to do this. Then she finally blurted it out in a rush of words, squeezing her eyes shut. "Igotmyfirstperiod!"

Newt raised an eyebrow, "Again?"

"I got my first period." She said again, this time really quietly.

He frowned. "I can't hear you."

"I GOT MY FIRST PERIOD!" Qiufeng exclaimed in exasperation at the same time the door clicked open, revealing a very surprised Minho, Clint and Alby.

She recoiled in shock, and there was a moment as all four boys just stood there and _stared_ at her. Her eyes darted from one face to another frantically as she felt fire sear through her cheeks and as much as she tried to hang onto a tiny shred of goddamn hope, she knew there was just no freaking possibility that they didn't hear her loud yell.

Newt was the first one to react, turning away from her and walking out of the room expressionlessly. The boys automatically made way for him as he walked past them, and Minho reacted next, in a series of uncontrollable sniggers that eventually evolved into outright laughing.

Qiufeng felt her face burn upon realizing that Newt probably knew what kind of blood was on his hands right now.

"Alby, Alby." Minho managed to say as he struggled to stop laughing. "I think, I know what the supplies you and Nick were so confused with yesterday are now."

"Yeah, I was going to tell her you shuck face." Alby shook his head at the gasping boy before turning to her. "Yesterday amongst the supplies Nick and I found a small box full of… Uhh packets." He paused for a moment before continuing. "After discussion we assumed it would be something for you since we've never had it before and wanted to tell you but the Gally incident made it slip our minds… We'll just bring it over."

Qiufeng let out a huge sigh, she had never felt so relieved in her life, and for once she thanked the Creators inwardly. However a depressing thought soon took over the relief as she looked at Minho howling in laughter and thought about Newt who was probably washing the klunk out of his hands right now, there was just no way they would ever let her forget this.

Meanwhile, Fry seemed more puzzled than pissed when a deadpan Newt pushed him out of the way to use the kitchen sink, scrubbing furiously at a couple of bloodstains on his hands.

"What happe-"

"Do NOT, talk about it."

* * *

AN: Hey all! How's it going? :3

I personally enjoyed writing this one, as many OC fics have girls that never have their period :X Just a friendly reminder that they're all still in their early teens and have not matured yet, so all their relationships are still platonic. Please bear with me!

Do consider leaving a review if you enjoyed this chapter! 3 What was your favorite part? (:


	10. Insecurities

For the next few days, the boys eventually learnt not to mess with a girl on her period, it was clearly worse than dealing with a stung shank. At least a stung shank you could still tie to the bed, was incoherent, couldn't argue back and only lasted for three days, four days maximum.

A girl on her period? Even a usually calm girl like Qiufeng, piss her off and she would argue the klunk out of you until you literally have nothing else to klunk out. The worst part was that _anything_ could set her emotions off during this period, and you wouldn't even know what had set her off (be it an action or the surroundings, or whether it was just your face) until it was too late. There was even once Newt had witnessed her bursting into tears out of nowhere and rushed to her side in alarm, only to find out it was because there was no more milk in the fridge.

"It was as if you stepped on a cat's tail and it sulked for a week, scratching your face off whenever you go too near it before the week is up." Minho liked to put it, having gotten the brunt of the flaring ups due to his sarcastic nature.

A day after hell week had ended, Qiufeng decided to get up early. Even before the runners were up, to take care of some business that had irked her throughout the week but she didn't feel like doing anything about it then because period.

She glanced down at her lunches and felt self-consciousness wash over her. How was she going to tell the others that she had made these for them later? She wondered if it was too weird to be packing lunches for the runners all of the sudden, and felt heat rise up to her cheeks at the thought of them judging her. She shook her head quickly to dispel all unwanted imaginations.

"It's normal!" The girl insisted to herself out loud as she wrapped up the lunch boxes. "You just saw the runners packing leftovers for themselves and decided it was unhealthy for them, especially since they're running out there for the whole day, like, what if they get a stomach-ache right? Then they wouldn't be able to run and then we'd be stuck in here longer!"

Qiufeng nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied with her own justification. She piled up the boxes on top of one another and with new found enthusiasm, turned around to place them on the table. To save herself embarrassment and having to explain herself, she'll just leave the lunches here for them to collect themselves later.

"So I, not being able to take it seeing them take leftovers anymore, decided to pack them lunches, clearly for my own-eek!"

She squeaked and almost dropped everything she was holding as she made eye contact with Minho who was leaning forward, folded arms supporting him against the table. To her further horror, she saw the rest of the runners standing a little way behind him, struggling not to laugh. The corner of his mouth was twitching a little, as if he was trying to hide the amusement on his face.

"H-how much of that did you hear?" Qiufeng demanded in a fluster, her face felt like it was on fire. She hastily setting the lunch boxes right in front of his face.

"Enough." Minho laughed as he stood up and took the pile of lunch boxes on the table and handed it out before sending the other runners off first. As they left, they in turn thanked her with amusement all over their faces, and told her not to worry too much about it, eventually leaving her alone with Minho and her humiliation.

Her eyes darted to and fro from Minho and the surroundings, as if she couldn't look him in the eye for too long just yet. "W-what?" She eventually stammered defensively as the other stayed put.

"Can't I thank you personally?" He raised an eyebrow as he took off his backpack. She stayed silent, not very sure of how to respond and still very much flustered from before. Fiddling with the little strands of hair that were settling around her neck, she wished he would leave her alone to lament her loss of reputation, _again_.

"Your hair's getting a little long isn't it?" He commented as he unzipped his backpack and put in the lunchbox.

Qiufeng blinked as she combed her fingers through her hair once, noticing the slight difference in length since she had arrived at the glade. "I… I didn't, notice."

Minho laughed. "Louis is going to be cutting the gladers' hair soon, but even I'd say you wouldn't make such a bad girl in long hair."

Long hair? She hadn't really thought about it.

"Gotta go, thanks Feng." He grinned and with a cheeky wink, turned around and jogged away.

As soon as he was out of sight, and making sure that no one else was around, she quickly grabbed the nearest pan and tried to find a good angle to look at her reflection. There weren't any mirrors around the glade, so the reflective surface of the metal would have to do, as burnt as it was.

She frowned as she tried to picture herself with perfect long flowing ebony black hair instead of the messy bird nest that she had on her head now. She often woke up with a horrible bedhead and usually just ran a hand through her short locks to untangle it, but the boys still teased her regardless. Even through the burnt marks she could see that a few strands of hair were sticking out randomly, and she tried to smoothen it down the best she could. However eventually she gave up trying, the pan was too burnt to see anything further.

Later that day when Newt came to visit her at the kitchen during lunch, she poured out the entire incident to him in a fluster, needing an outlet to her emotions. "Oh my god, first last week happened, and now everyone's going to think I'm a weirdo, talking to myself like that in the morning." She groaned, throwing her head unto her folded arms on the table.

Newt chuckled at the girl's laments as he shook his head and patted her on the back. "Don't worry you shank, I'm sure they appreciated the gesture."

She peered out at him and sighed in defeat. "…Well, I guess but I still got caught talking to myself."

"Trust me, you're not the weirdest." The blond reassured. "Louis from the track-hoes once got caught using the spade as a mic and singing away like some kinda popstar."

"Are you serious?" Qiufeng sat up and giggled, intrigued by his recounting of the other glader's embarrassing moments.

"Yeah, we didn't let that shank _ever_ hear the end of it." Newt's eyes twinkled with amusement. "But we limit ourselves, don't want him to cut flower patterns into our hair."

"Oh right, he cuts your hair?" The girl asked, thinking back to the morning where Minho had mentioned that Louis was going to be cutting hair for the gladers soon.

She instinctively reached for the little strands of hair that were curling around her neck and Newt noticed. "Yeah he does, do you think our hair stays short magically?" He laughed. "In fact, he's cutting hair tomorrow for a few gladers, wanna get yours cut?"

"Oh right." Qiufeng mused as she played with the ends of her hair for a moment before glancing up at Newt. "Do you think I should?"

He studied her for a moment. Right now, with a good scrubbing and some hair wax, Qiufeng would probably look like those kind of young pretty boys that appeared back in the day in host clubs and entertainment venues. If she grew out her hair, it would probably distinguish her from the rest of the boys, though he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not.

She was still fourteen after all. She had hardly matured to a point where anyone could clearly tell she was a girl on sight especially since she had short hair like the rest of them. If not for the fact that her voice was clearly female, they would've just thought she was another shank albeit feminine in the box when she arrived.

"It wouldn't make a difference to me really, you'll still be Feng anyway." Newt eventually said. "Although if you grow out your hair you'll obviously look more like a gal."

He paused, wondering if he should add on and decided to shuck it. "You can't really tell otherwise asides from your voice." Newt chuckled, earning himself a whack on the back from the indignant girl.

"Anyway, I'll leave you to it, need to get back to work." He laughed, getting up from his seat and heading off. "Don't think about it too much, you'll still be Feng to us either way."

She watched him go thoughtfully, before slipping back behind the kitchen counter and grabbing the pan again. Sitting down on the ground back against the counter, she stared at her barely visible reflection through the burn marks, frowning as she struggled to come up with an image of herself. Eventually she started to move the pan around, up and down, and tried looking at herself through different angles to find a spot where she could see herself the most.

"Qiufeng?" Someone called, and she dropped the pan in panic.

She picked up the pan hurriedly, but Fry had already heard the loud clanging sound and poked his head out from behind the corner. She gave him a sheepish smile. "Hi."

"What the shuck are you doing?" He gave her a suspicious look as he put down what he was doing and approached the guilty looking girl.

"I-I knocked into the pan!" Qiufeng laughed nervously.

Fry raised an eyebrow as she continued, insisting that it was true.

"Qiufeng…"

"Ah…" Her face fell when she realized it wasn't going to work with Fry. "Okay okay! I was trying to look at my reflection so I could try to imagine myself with long hair!" Her confession tumbled out of her rapidly and she heaved a big sigh at the end, covering her face with the pan.

"Long hair?" Fry raised an eyebrow, before remembering that Louis was going to be cutting their hair the next day. "Why would you want long hair?"

"I-I mean." She took a deep breath. "You know… I am a girl after all…"

"Then keep your hair?" Fry looked flabbergasted, he couldn't see why this was a dilemma for her.

"Wouldn't it be weird if I kept my hair long?" Qiufeng shifted uncomfortably under the table. Like, she was amongst a bunch of boys after all, perhaps fitting in was better. That and she was quite comfortable with her relationships around the glade right now, a boy, like the rest. Would things change if she decided to be more feminine? Would they isolate her again? What about Newt and Minho? She didn't want things to change between them either.

"I see nothing weird about it, you're still going to be you." Fry laughed. "Of course if you do, you can expect some shanks around here to try their luck eventually, bunch of hormone filled shanks."

She laughed, that was another reason. But… At least to the people closest to her, she was still going to be her. That made her feel better about whichever decision she was going to make. Yes, she would still be Qiufeng, long hair or short hair regardless, and she felt confident that Newt and Minho wouldn't treat her any other way.

"Nothing wrong with a girl wanting to look a girl." He reassured her as he took the pan away. "Now get your lazy ass up, the kitchen needs cleaning, and your clothes ain't gonna cut it!"

"Yeah yeah." She smiled as she got up from the floor and dusted herself off, before reaching for the broom. Fry went back to what he was doing, and she started to sweep the floor and along with it, her worries away.

The next day as she was preparing food for the runners again, Newt jogged up to the kitchens. There were already a few people walking around in the half-light, having awakened earlier to have their hair cut. A chair was set up a little way from the centre of the glade, where one boy sat still and another snipped away at his fringe.

"C'mon Feng, it's almost your turn to cut." The blond called a little way from the kitchen, placing both hands on his hips.

Qiufeng looked down at the ground for a moment, before looking back up at him with a smile. "It's okay Newt! I'm not cutting my hair anymore!"

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AN: Hey guys! :D I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Redamancy, I know it's a little slow but please bear with me ^^; what's your favourite part of this chapter? :

Also don't forget to leave a review to show your love! (:


	11. The Three of Us

The next two weeks were relatively calm and uneventful, except for one tiny thing.

"Sup shanks." Minho said casually as he approached the kitchen from behind. His voice suddenly shot up a pitch at the last word, making everyone within hearing vicinity turn and roar in laughter, including Newt.

Minho's voice was breaking and if it wasn't the most hilarious thing that happened this whole month, nobody knew what was.

Even Qiufeng couldn't help stifling a laugh as she turned to the rather annoyed boy. "Hey." She smiled from behind the kitchen counter as she looked up from putting plates on a tray, her eyes twinkling with amusement as the other settled down beside Newt. It was so rare to see the big and tough Minho get shut down by anything, or even flustered really, that she had to enjoy the few moments that he was out rightly embarrassed.

"I swear when it's their shucking turn to have their voice broken…" Minho growled in a low voice, trying not to trigger the break.

"Look on the bright side, you'll be the first one done when the rest of us start squeakin." Newt patted him on the back sympathetically as Qiufeng glided over with the tray.

"So who's the greenie?" She asked cheerfully as she passed over a few plates to them, effortlessly holding the tray at the same time. Today she officially graduated from being the greenie of the glade, someone else having come up in the box this afternoon. She was kept busy in the kitchen the whole time preparing for the welcome party in evening. "Dinner preparations had me busy in the kitchen this afternoon, didn't even have time to look up."

"He's a little shank." Minho said, voice cracking again. He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath as if trying to calm his frustration, and dug into the food.

"Everyone's a shank to you shuck face." Qiufeng shook her head, the glade slang coming naturally as she set down her plate in between them. Hanging out with the boys had really rubbed off her. She was about to sit down when a thought occurred to her and she clapped her hands together. "Oh remember when I said I had something to show you this morning?" She smiled widely, creating a dimple at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

"Yeah?" Newt looked up from his food curiously, as did Minho.

She grinned cheekily. There was a moment as she took a breath and extended her right arm out to balance her body weight, while the other one brought her left leg high above her head. After her fight with Minho and realizing that her body was capable of much more, she carried out some experiments by herself and found out her body was extremely flexible and agile. At first she was a little bit stiff with her movements, but after enough practice she eventually got the hang of it. Now as long as she kept to some daily exercises, staying nimble would be effortless.

Minho raised an eyebrow and Newt just stared. "…Doesn't it hurt?" The blond eventually asked, and both boys instinctively brought their legs closer together.

"Surprisingly no!" She brought herself back into a standing position again with a little jump and a proud smile. "I've been testing my limits recently, and apparently I'm more flexible than I thought."

Qiufeng promptly took her plate off the log and squeezed in between the two boys, her smile never wavering. "Isn't this great? It might come in handy one day, like for avoiding bullets or something."

"The bullet would've already killed you by the time you're done performing." Minho replied dryly as he poked his fork in the air as if making a point.

"Yeah maybe if it hadn't killed you first while you're so busy yapping." She shot back quickly, and they spent a good few seconds squinting at each other before she gave in and laughed. "Okay okay seriously though, who's the Greenbean?"

Although she was glad for shedding the title of newest kid around, there was just something endearing about being new, where everyone was curious about you and cared for you in a sense even if it didn't really seem like caring. However even if she did feel a tinge of regret, she was still mostly happy. Perhaps the gladers would entrust her with bigger responsibilities now that she had upped herself a level.

"His name's Niko, small boy about the same age as us, bonded immediately with the Slicers." Newt pointed out a lanky brunet who was speaking excitedly with the slicers, hands waving wildly in all sorts of gestures across the glade. The blond frowned and continued. "Honestly, he's way too excited to be here. It kinda creeps me out, might throw him off the cliff myself."

"Nah, the only person you would hurt around here is yourself." Minho added in without thinking while stuffing his mouth. Upon realizing what he had said, he stopped suddenly and gave the other boy a half wince, half apologetic look. Qiufeng watched curiously as the blond glared at him in response and decided not to ask. It was obviously a sensitive issue by the way that Newt responded.

"Did the runners find anything this afternoon?" Newt turned back to his food, purposely ignoring what Minho had said earlier.

"That's the dumbest thing you could ask a runner, and you know that of all people." The Asian replied dryly with a roll of his eyes.

They lapsed into a quiet silence as they focused on eating, suddenly quite aware of the cries and laughter of the boys around the campfire at the back of their head. Qiufeng chewed her food slowly as the silence let her thoughts wander, wander out to the maze, through the walls and into the world beyond. They soon drifted to the brother she never remembered, and she wondered what he was doing now. What he was like, where he was, whether he know about her or if she stayed forgotten, buried under dust. Would she get to meet him if they ever got out?

Nothing ever gets through those walls, Minho had told her. But she knew better. Thoughts, hopes and dreams of a better future, of lost families and old friends. All of those had gone beyond the walls, carried by a tiny speck of faith.

"I wonder what it's like out there." Qiufeng suddenly commented as she looked up, her eyes wandering upwards into the endless blue.

Minho glanced at her. "It's really nothing much, just imagine the corridor outside times ten and all aroun-"

"No no, not the maze." The girl interrupted as she shook her head and stretched out her arm, waving over the walls into the distance. "I mean outside these walls, the world beyond."

Minho raised his eyes to the skies. "…who knows?"

"We'll find out eventually." Newt replied after a moment of silence as he too, gazed up at the twinkling stars.

Qiufeng tore her eyes away from the dizzying expanse of the sky and glanced over to her left and right at the two boys beside her. In the maze it was obvious that they had to take risks eventually, and it was almost always a matter of life and death. They were young, brash and that somehow scared her but perhaps it would be their saving grace. What about herself though? Although her confidence had been building over the past few days, what she would do in a life threatening situation she honestly didn't know.

There was a moment as a question popped into her head, so stupid it almost hurt to think about it. Her pride disapproved but her heart screamed at her for vocalization, seeking reassurance and comfort. She stared down at her plate. "…do you think we'll get out?"

Minho snorted. "Of course we will, what do you think I'm doing every day?"

"And we'll beat up the bastards that put us here." Newt nodded his head.

There was a moment as she contemplated their words and nodded with a faint smile. "We'll see it one day." She murmured she raised her arm up as if to catch the entire heavens in the palm of her hand. "Beyond the walls."

"Definitely." Newt chuckled, his eyes twinkling with renewed hope.

"Together." She clenched her fist firmly and smiled at them.

"The three of us." Minho agreed with a smirk.

Qiufeng laughed freely, a first since she stepped into the glade. "The three of us."

* * *

 _2 years later._

A blonde woman paced around a white tiled room surrounded by glass walls, empty except for a long glass table in the middle. She wore nothing but white, her hair tied up into a tight bun above her head. She stopped for a moment as if thoughtful, but then shook her head and continued to pace, the clicking of her heels sounding more and more frustrated as the seconds tick by.

There was a beeping sound and she took a deep breath, slowing down to stand in front of the table. She waited a moment before a large holographic screen opened up in the middle. A man stood on the other side. He had black hair that faded to grey down his sideburns.

"Subject P16 Medusa and subject P24 Cerberus have succumbed to the experiments Chancellor, their bodies were not able to adapt to the changes." He begun gravely, his hands clasped together on the table. When there was no response from the woman in white other than a head shake, he continued.

"We need your decision Chancellor." He stated calmly. "We believe that we have obtained enough study on subject P9 and P10."

The woman remained silent as she focused on something a little way to the left of the screen, tapping her fingers against the transparent table top.

"We followed your decision to leave them in the respective mazes, overlooking the mix-up two years ago even though the subjects could have been damaged." His voice grew in urgency as he leaned forward. "We must insist that you consider our proposal to avoid future incidents during The End."

She stayed silent as she took a seat, flipping through some documents that were placed on her table. Her fingers paused on a page, shifting slightly to reveal a photo of a young Asian girl with long straight hair and vacant eyes. The woman gazed at the photo for a moment before turning her eyes to the next page where another photo was clipped. An Asian boy stared into the camera with the same vacancy, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the girl from before.

"The mix-up would have never happened if your previous team wasn't slipshod in handling the subjects." She calmly replied after a moment. "We were lucky it was just one mistake."

He gritted his teeth at her humiliating words. "If you would've just kept the girl's hair as her original length it wouldn't have happened, it was an honest mistake – They're twins!"

"It was a hidden test to see if your team was competent." The woman's voice rose for a moment before falling back into a calm. "They were not, and thus not here anymore."

There was a pause before the woman spoke again. "I'm sure this is not the reason why you have called me, Director Janson."

"…we've come to a point where we scientists need a miracle, and these children named after myths are our last hope should the trials fail." The man replied slowly, standing up and leaning forward towards the screen. A giveaway sign that he was losing his cool. "P16 and 24 have already succumbed to the experiment, and there're less than thirty of these precious specimens left."

There was a moment as the woman just sat there, searching the other's face through the screen.

"Fine." She eventually said, her eyes briefly glancing down at the documents below her, over the words printed below the photo of the Asian girl. "Take them out of the maze."

 _Qiu Feng. Subject ID P9._

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AN: Hey guys! As you can tell, things are finally picking up pace! I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Redamancy, please consider leaving a vote if you have! (:

What was your favorite part of the chapter? :D


	12. Reminances

**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:** I've re-written the first seven to eight chapters, most of it is just including more detail on Feng and her surroundings as well as her feelings. However I've also taken the time to include Nick, whom I forgot about in the earlier chapters (whoops) He makes a very minor difference as I've come too far into the plot to change it, but I just wanted to inform you so that when I mention him later on within this chapter, you guys don't get confused. For those that don't know who Nick is, he was the leader before Alby.

I would recommend rereading the first three to five chapters if you guys have the time, because that's where most of my major edits were made.

As always, I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Do consider leaving a review telling me what you think, I'd love to hear from you! (:

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Half-light had settled on the glade, immersing everything within the maze walls in a gentle bluish glow. It was only during this time of the day that even after so long of being here, she felt that the walls didn't look intimidating but comforting even. It was almost ironic that these walls were protecting them from the monsters that were prowling around the maze, but at the same time withholding them from their freedom.

Two years had passed in a flash and plenty of things had changed within the Glade. She witnessed the boys grow up with her, fights, banishings, changings, and recently even death. Qiufeng cringed and skipped ahead in her thoughts. Right after that gruesome incident, Alby took over leader status and Newt became second-in-command. She could hardly believe it's been almost a month since then.

Shaking away the memory, she reached into her pocket and brought out a packet of rubber bands. Snapping one around her wrist, Qiufeng closed her eyes and combed her fingers through her hair, bringing it all to one side in a quick braid. She tightened it after looping the end through a few times and left it to drop just below her chest, brushing away some loose strands out of her eyes.

"Keep long hair! It would be pretty! Yeah right." Qiufeng rolled her eyes and mimicked her younger self in a mocking high-pitched voice. "If only I knew how high maintenance long hair was back then, probably would've just snipped it." She shook her head, but she knew inwardly that she could never bear to cut away her long hair now. Just as she was about to start prepping lunchboxes for the runners as usual, a movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention.

"Feng!" A hushed voice called out urgently to her as she peered over, catching sight of a tuft of brown hair peeking over the kitchen counter. The other gladers picked up the nickname that Minho had given her as soon as they found out about it, not that she minded of course.

"No." She stated as she turned away, not needing to look any further to know who it was. She reached into the fridge, bringing out some tomatoes, lettuce and chicken slices that she prepared yesterday.

"Please?" Chuck asked, giving her a pleading eye. He was the greenie this month, and it didn't take long for the kitchen to be wary of his appetite. He used to approach Fry for snacks, but started turning to Qiufeng instead when the chef eventually got tired of his nonsense and kicked him out of the kitchen one day.

"Nope." She refused to budge, piling her ingredients neatly into a loaf of bread that was already sliced in half. When the gap was filled, she started to slice it into several smaller sandwiches in quick deft movements.

"Aww c'mon." Chuck whined and she sighed, putting down the knife she was holding and rolling her eyes.

"You'd think that we were feeding you nothing but klunk, by the way you act." Qiufeng chided him as she picked up one of the smaller sandwiches she had cut. Walking towards the kitchen counter, she picked up an apple from the fruits basket, and passed it over along with the sandwich to the tanned boy. "Now shoo, before I tell Frypan."

Chuck laughed as he scooted away towards the deadheads to enjoy his early breakfast. "Thanks Feng! You're the best!"

She shook her head and turned back to her preparation. Chuck was about twelve or thirteen, quite a few years younger than her. He had become a slopper a week after he arrived, which wasn't very surprising. He was a little on the pudgy side, wasn't fit enough to do physical work, and was too young to handle any of the other responsibilities. He was a quirky kid with a sense of humour though, and was often caught playing pranks on the other gladers.

"Couldn't stop yourself from giving that lil fat shank a snack could ya?" An amused voice sounded from behind her.

Once again she didn't need to look to know who it was.

"You want a snack too Newt?" She asked with a laugh, carefully picking up an apple for each lunchbox.

The blond chuckled as he leaned against the counter. His once girlish voice had matured into a one with a boyish charm, complete with a British accent. "What? Can't I just visit a friend for no reason?"

She turned around to place the lunchboxes on the kitchen counter, taking an extra apple as she did so. When she passed by him, she pressed the apple against his lips gently. "It's hard to believe people actually come by the kitchens for no reason, especially at this time." Her eyes twinkled with amusement as she mimicked his accent playfully.

He smiled as he took it from her, taking a quick bite. "Can't fool ya at all Feng, you know us too well."

"I'll be damned if I stayed with you shanks for two years and haven't memorized all your patterns already." She rolled her eyes at him as she packed away the extra food that was lying around.

"You're up early Newt." Someone commented as there was the sound of shoes trudging through the grass and Qiufeng couldn't help but smile at the sound of his voice, a hint of a dimple appearing at the corner of her mouth.

"Was peckish." The blond grinned, gesturing with his half eaten apple.

"Also, all packed and ready to go." She announced as she leaned forward against the kitchen counter and gestured to the lunch boxes on the table top.

"Thanks Feng." Minho smirked as he casually swung an arm around Newt's shoulder. He too had developed a more masculine voice after a few months of 'squeaking like a mouse', but his was deeper and shared the same touch of Asian origin as hers.

"As always." Her expression softened into a fond smile as she took off her apron and hung it up on the cupboard, before joining the other two boys and walking with them towards the opening in the walls.

Waking up, prepping lunch for the runners, sending Minho off into the maze, before coming back and starting on breakfast preparations. In her free time afterwards before lunch she usually hung out with the other gladers that weren't doing anything. Lunch prep, free time again, followed by dinner prep, and dinner. Such have been her days for the past two years really.

However after a knife slipped out from her hand one day, spinning and stabbing the ground in a fascinating way, she started to use her free time for practice, learning how to throw knives in the deadheads for self-protection. Qiufeng thought the skill would come handy in the future since she was a cautious person, and preferred not to get up and personal with her enemies. She knew that sooner or later would come a day where she herself would have to step into the maze, and she didn't want to go unprepared.

The gladers didn't know about her unique skill only because they were usually too busy to notice, although she suspected that Frypan knew. The amount of kitchen knives that were going blunt or missing frequently over the months that followed were too much, and the scars that riddled her hands from accidents were too many for cooking incidents. He had thrown her a knowing glance once or twice but she had always returned it with a sheepish smile, not wanting to read too much into it.

Hearing laughter from the side brought her back to the present as she glanced fondly over to the two boys that were joking around beside her. Nothing much had changed between them as well, except for the fact that they had all matured into older teenagers.

Newt had grown into a lean muscled young man over the past two years. In all honesty, Qiufeng felt the only difference puberty gave him was just a more mature body. His messy dirty blond hair still fell in a side swept fringe above his chocolate brown eyes like it always had. His face was basically still the same, just without the baby fat.

Minho had also grown along with Newt, but with more obvious changes. His chest and shoulders had matured to become a lot broader than his lean body shape back then, and he had developed a lot of muscles on his arms. He had also lost the baby fat on his cheeks, replaced with a well-defined jawline and more prominent high cheekbones.

Meanwhile as for herself… She honestly couldn't tell because there weren't any mirrors around the glade. She knew her hair was definitely longer now and was proud that she _seemed_ to have something along the lines of a chest now. She was also definitely taller, but besides that she would have to ask the boys about the rest and she didn't really want to hear it from them.

Well, just Minho specifically.

She could live without knowing his opinion because… Honestly, she didn't want to hear his thoughts about her.

Upon reaching the East door, Minho distributed the lunch boxes until he was left with one for himself. Just when he was about to drop his backpack, Qiufeng stepped forward. Taking the box from him, she wordlessly turned him around to pack it in for him without making eye contact.

As she zipped it up, she rested her hands there for a moment. "Careful." She kept her eyes on his back, murmuring softly only for him to hear. There was a pause as he glanced up into the sky that was starting to bleed hues of amber and gold unto the surface of the grey walls. "Yeah."

Qiufeng stepped away and Minho gave the go before the runners quickly disappeared into the maze, all but gone within mere seconds. He eventually left the safety of the glade too, heading towards the farthest lane down the corridor. She felt a pang of worry as he left her sight, she had been eavesdropping on their meetings lately, and knew he was headed to the outer rings of the maze again.

Then she left alone with Newt. Turning behind, she smiled at the blond a little too brightly and started walking back into the glade. There was a silence as the Newt trudged along behind her, before he spoke up uncertainly just as they were walking past the box. "Actually, about Minho…"

Qiufeng felt her body freeze for a second in shock at the question, but quickly recovered and continued walking. She tried to ease her heart from hammering against her chest, scared that Newt might hear if he was too close. "…about Minho?" She asked cheerfully as she dared to glance back at him, trying to keep nervousness from seeping into her voice.

Newt opened his mouth to ask his question, but nothing came out. There was a moment as he contemplated if this was the best question he should be asking her right now, and in the end shook his head, gesturing for her to continue walking.

As soon as he left her to go about checking on the gladers for the day, Qiufeng slipped away to make the most of her remaining free time. Surprisingly, no one bothered about her as she skirted along the edges of the kitchen, and she managed an easy disappearance into the deadheads after grabbing her jacket.

Once within the forest, she reached into her pocket to pull out a knife. However before she could even throw it she sighed and sank down to the ground against a tree, ignoring the rough bark scratching her back. She kept the knife and untied her hair, re-braiding it. While her fingers worked, her thoughts wandered. She couldn't remember when exactly she had started feeling this conflicted, this confused. Qiufeng felt her heart sink for some reason, and she didn't know why.

 _Wrong._

Qiufeng had never experienced it in her life but her mind though brainwashed, _knew_.

As the days had passed over the years, Qiufeng eventually got comfortable enough with the boys and her own skin. Laughter started to come easy as she became warmer and fooled around more. No one knew, but it was partially due to Minho that she had started opening up. His brash and sarcastic nature made it difficult for her not to rebuke most of the time, and they always ended up in banters that challenged her comfort zone.

There was once during these frequent banters where her tongue had slipped up and she fell over her words. Usually it was easy for her to continue after laughing it off. However this time she remembered how she had looked up into his amused eyes to reply, and it was as if all the wit she had just fell out her mouth during that second. Her stomach decided then to tie itself into knots, and her voice failed her. He didn't notice of course. He thought she had nothing left to say and claimed victory with a smirk that sent an electric spark through her body.

She had tried to dismiss the feeling. Until the day she witnessed a banishing for the first time, Leon suffering the consequences for stabbing Max over something about an insult carelessly tossed. She had sat close to Minho for comfort after the whole ordeal because Newt was busy talking to Nick, and remembered his hand brushing past hers while reaching for water. It made her jump and set her cheeks on fire, but he had dismissed it indifferently, thinking it was shock from the earlier event. She had smiled back nervously while noticing the way his cheekbones were becoming more prominent.

That night itself, she remembered that she couldn't tear her eyes away from him. A strange attraction had her admiring the composition of where his board shoulders met the curve of his slightly arched neck, extending up to his well-defined jawline. However whenever he looked her way, she had turned away as quickly as a frightened doe, heat searing through her cheeks and her heart pounding frantically in her chest.

That was about a year ago when all of them were still barely matured. Now of course, her feelings weren't as intense anymore and her reactions weren't as drastic but then she remembered Nick's death.

With the new greenie this month, he had insisted to rappel down the box hole in a crazed attempt to escape the maze. Nick was still their leader, so the rest of them couldn't do much to stop him. She remembered watching Newt and two other boys lower him down with a rope into the darkness, with Minho beside her. It was going smoothly, when about halfway down there was a swishing sound like a blade cutting through the air.

Newt and the two boys that were holding to his safety rope suddenly jerked backwards, their expressions changing into one of confusion as they panicked about the rope suddenly being 'much lighter'. Then came the screams from inside the box hole. Strangled, raw and excruciating like a dying animal. The boys worked quickly get him up, but then suddenly the screams stopped. Just silence.

It took a moment before the boys continued to pull, slowly this time as if they didn't really want to see what was at the end of the rope. The moment Nick's head peered out of the edge of the box, there was clearly something wrong. He was limp and as more light was shed on him they could see that his eyes were unblinking, face frozen in a twisted expression of pain.

 _Dead_. That was what ran through their minds the moment they saw him, but no one voiced it out. They gingerly pulled him out further onto the grass. She had caught a glimpse of a bloody stump dripping with blood where his waist should've been, before suddenly Minho roughly grabbed her to turn and face him instead. She stared at his broad chest in shock for a moment before glancing up. He stared on above her head, expression grim.

And through the whole gruesome situation, she couldn't help but feel there was still something, something lingering whenever he was around.

Then a bright light blinded her for a second and she flinched, her thoughts temporarily scattered. Her hand instinctively flew up to block the source and as she squinted from her position, the light flickered off. Something scuttled through the bushes and she caught a glint of silver flash from between the leaves. She relaxed, realizing it was just a beetle blade.

Glancing up to the sky between the cracks of the leaves, she noticed it had softened to a light blue and closed her eyes. Once her breathing had evened she stood up against the tree, pressing her hands against her cheeks and pushed against them really hard. "Okay! I've done this for a year or so now, I'll do it again if I need to." She nodded confidently to herself.

"Do what?" A voice sounded behind her and she groaned inwardly, almost not even surprised anymore. Why was it whenever she talked to herself and herself only, someone _had_ to show up? Though it was better him than anyone else because he was her closest friend.

"Do…" Her voice faltered for a second as her brain fought to think of an excuse. "Do the seasoning!" Qiufeng announced as she turned around to face Newt, walking up to him. "Y'know, it is _such_ a pain." She laughed nervously. Newt raised an eyebrow, obviously not buying her act.

"Anyway, what're you doing here?" Qiufeng quickly changed the subject, squinting at Newt. It was barely half an hour since he had left to finish up his own business, and she highly doubted he was done checking on the gladers.

"Fry's looking for ya." Newt jabbed a thumb towards the kitchen and the girl gasped in realization, she had spent so much time in thought she had forgotten about the time.

"Shuck oh my god." Panic spread over her face. "He's going to kill me, he told me not to be late…"

Shouting back a quick thanks to Newt who just shook his head with a fond smile, the girl made way to the kitchen where Fry was already done with most of the work. She gulped, wondering if she would make it past his temper.

"F-Fry!" She began brightly as she approached the other from behind, peering out sideways to see if she could catch a glimpse of his expression before deciding on the best route to go down.

The other paused in his work and she froze in her steps instinctively.

"You feeling better?" He suddenly asked, his voice surprisingly neutral considering she hadn't done any work this morning.

"I… I feel great!" She stuttered, trying to keep confusion out of her voice. She wondered if this was a trick of some sort.

"Newt told me what you were up to, sounds pretty nasty the way he said it." The cook picked up the tray he was holding, turning around to face her and she did her best to pretend she knew exactly what he was talking about. "I did most of breakfast preparations around here, just help me bring over the food will ya?"

She sighed in relief inwardly, thanking the heavens for a friend like Newt even though she didn't know what exactly he had told Fry. She honestly never thought that they would be as close as they were now, but since the day she stepped into the maze he was always the one she would turn to whenever she needed help. That and she stuck to him the most, because he just naturally made everyone comfortable around him.

Picking up the tray and moving them to the tables, she glanced up once again at the azure. Qiufeng wondered where Minho was in the maze right now and prayed for his safety, her only consolation coming from the sky that they both shared.


	13. Murder

"So, what did you tell Fry?" Qiufeng asked as she bit into an apple and plopped down beside Newt, leaning against his side. She held out a bowl with the other hand, the steaming hot stew of a slightly bigger ratio compared to the other gladers around them. The blond raised an eyebrow at the large portion as he took it slowly, and she caught onto his suspicion. She made a face as she sat up and glanced back to face him properly, taking another bite of her apple. "What? You saved my ass this morning."

"I just told Fry you were klunking out a big klunk, and was so sore afterwards you had to sit down." Newt shrugged as the nonchalant expression on Qiufeng's face changed into one of disbelief. He grinned as she eventually just rolled her eyes. She couldn't really say anything to rebuke him, Fry would've had her head otherwise this morning.

"So, what's happening in the glade today?" she asked, settling back against him.

"Nothing much, except that shuck face Gally pummelled his finger with the hammer again," Newt answered as he started digging into his food.

"So that was the scream I heard." Qiufeng looked up thoughtfully as she recalled the sudden yell from across the glade that had made her jump and almost drop the knife she was holding.

"Apparently," he replied in amusement. "He's being patched up by the Med Jacks now, I think it's the third time this week."

"You would think that a builder would have more patience." She laughed out loud.

"It's Gally, that shank will never have patience." The blond chuckled. "Besides that, we're hoping that Minho comes back today with news of some kind." Newt spoke again, capturing her attention immediately with his name.

"…Isn't that just every day?" She let a wistful smile settle on her lips.

"Well…" His voice was uncertain as he took a moment. "I haven't told you this, but Minho has been venturing out into the outer rings since last year."

Qiufeng had no reaction, because she already knew. She had a bad habit, she knew, of eavesdropping on their meetings occasionally and just so happened that one of those meetings had fed her that information. She felt an urge to protest, but she couldn't afford to reveal herself and they were right after all. The runners needed to make progress if they wanted to get out eventually. She tried her best to remain oblivious about it, worrying silently every single morning the Korean boy left the glade.

"Oh." She managed, failing to sound surprised.

"You're taking this rather well." Newt glanced over, but with her sitting against his shoulder he couldn't see anything but the back of her head.

"Why not?" She laughed a little too cheerfully. "Since when was it that the oh-so-great Minho couldn't handle things on his own?"

He stayed silent for a little, contemplating her words. Qiufeng had never been too great of a liar ever since the day she arrived in the glade, but and most could tell. It was either she stayed silent about what she knew, or she gave it away in a voice too light-hearted. It was often the former, and only someone that talked to her as often as he did would know that she was frequently hiding things from them.

"Yeah." He got up without warning, making her fall over unto the log with a surprised squeak. "Well, I gotta get back to work."

"You go ahead." She smiled as she waved him away, one arm resting lazily over her forehead.

After Newt had left with a shake of his head, she lay there for a while until her eyes could no longer take the brilliance of the sky. Qiufeng then sat up, letting her vision adjust to the sudden change of brightness and saw that a couple of gladers were resting nearby, a mixture of the several sections. They waved her over upon realizing she was done spacing out.

"Was wondering how long you were going to sunbathe shank." One of them said upon her nearing them.

"Not as long as you taking a shower Zart." She laughed as she plopped herself on a log beside the group.

During her free time she hung out with the other gladers, just to make sure she wasn't isolated from the group. Although she had to admit that being around Newt and Minho was a lot easier, she couldn't stick around them all the time.

She remembered joining a group of boys for the first time when Newt was busy and Minho was out, sitting herself quietly on the edge of the log. The boys got a bit awkward at first, throwing uncertain glances at each other. It made her so uncomfortable that she was ready to just get up, leave and spend the rest of her life here without other friends, but then someone spoke up.

"Hey Greenbean."

She started and looked up towards the source of the voice, catching sight of a blond haired boy with dark eyes. That was Zart, keeper of the track-hoes. "Y-yes!" She had stammered, a little terrified that they had addressed her directly.

"So…" He paused nervously, as if wondering how to approach her. "How's the glade been for ya?"

She stared at him for a moment, and then took a quick look around her. The boys had all but stopped talking amongst themselves and watched her hesitantly, uncertainty flickering in their eyes. And then it was like a revelation had hit her in the face and opened her eyes.

These boys, it wasn't that they didn't want to talk to her, they didn't know _how_.

That by itself made her burst into laughter out of nowhere, making all of their expressions simultaneously change into one of bewilderment. They stared at her as if she had gone crazy, but then someone else giggled and the whole group was soon roaring in laughter for no reason. She couldn't really remember what happened afterwards, except for Alby walking past and giving the hysterical teenagers a weird look.

After that they soon realized that she was just another human being, just with some slight differences. That never really bothered them though, and treated her as though she was another boy.

"So you got any new tricks for us today?" another glader, Stan asked, pulling her out of her thoughts of the past.

She shook her head as she stood up, bringing her leg behind her head in a graceful arc. "I think I wrung out almost everything my body can do actually."

Qiufeng was a proud girl, and couldn't help showing off her flexibility when the topic arose one day in free time. She showed them new tricks every time she found out about one. From air splits to kicks and bends that they would probably never dream of even doing, she could pull off. It made for a great entertainment sometimes when the boys tried to do it themselves, competing against each other to see whose leg could stretch the farthest.

"Are you sure?" A boy named Tim spoke, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "I bet it cou-"

"HELP!" Before he could finish his sentence, a raw scream echoed through the glade and they started, heads all turning in the direction of the yell. It came from the maze.

They got up cautiously, making their way down towards the slope. Qiufeng stayed behind the group as they jogged downwards, dread creeping up on her as her mind instinctively predicted what had happened. The screams were becoming more and more desperate, pain wrought and hysterical as they neared the entrance and the girl braced herself for a terrible sight.

As they came into view of the passage way the runners ran into every morning, she noticed something wrong immediately. One of the runners, Albert, was attacking another runner, Lester. Albert was acting in a way they could only describe as _stung_ , raw animalistic snarls coming from his wide snapping jaws and a crazed look in his bulging eyes. They were scuffling on the floor a good distance away from the safety of the glade, and there was a moment as Albert managed to get the upper hand, his teeth sinking into the other's neck. Lester screamed as he tried to tear the frenzied boy away, but once he saw the group standing in shock near the entrance hope lit up his eyes as he started to direct his screams towards them.

However, no one moved.

A cold realization hit her in the face as she remembered that no one was allowed to leave the Glade except for runners.

Glancing around in panic, she realized that some of the boys had left to get Alby already, however she knew by the time they had returned, Lester would've been torn to shreds by Albert. They were slightly sideways, and she could see visible bite wounds around his neck, blood spurting out as the other exerted himself in order to stay alive. She ought to feel sick, but somehow the sheer horror of the situation kept her strangely alert.

"C-can't somebody help?" She frantically asked as she pushed her way to the front.

"We can't leave the Glade." Zart whispered, his voice deathly quiet, eyes fixated on Lester.

Qiufeng opened her mouth to protest, but nothing left it as she couldn't find a reason to give.

She just _stared._

And then she felt something hard and cold against her fingertips.

She glanced down without thinking, realizing her hand had slipped into her apron pocket unconsciously. There was a flash of silver as sunlight reflected off the small kitchen knife.

And then the solution was clear.

Qiufeng brought out the knife, trying to keep her hands from trembling. Her eyes looked straight forward, to the pair of scuffling teenagers on the group. Lester was steadily losing strength under the bigger boy. His voice came out in whimpers and sobs now, having stopped screaming completely after realizing the gladers weren't going to step out to help him.

She stepped back, grasping the knife by the tip and raised her hand, when someone caught it.

"What're you doing?" Zart whispered furiously.

"He's _dying._ " Qiufeng breathed out the words in desperation. Her voice shook, painfully strained. "We can't leave the glade, but we have to do _something_."

"What if you hit the wrong person?" Zart's voice trembled, but he knew she was right.

"It's better than not trying at all." She spoke through gritted teeth, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe.

Zart let go of her hand, and she positioned herself once more.

She took a deep breath and stepped backwards, holding the tip of the kitchen knife and took an aim at Albert whilst trying to ignore Lester's hapless expression.

Then suddenly a thought struck her, making her hand hesitate. She was going to injure or even _kill_ someone. Qiufeng faltered, her hand lowering slightly as her eyes never left the pair on the ground. Lester looked up, his frantic eyes searching for hope again from the glade. Their eyes met, and her grip tightened.

 _There was no choice._

She flung the knife with all her strength.

For a second both teenagers were shocked still on the ground, the knife having obviously having made its mark. However it was difficult to tell who it actually hit, the two boys locked together closely in a life or death struggle.

A moment passed.

Qiufeng's eyes darted about wildly.

Another moment.

Albert's body twitched.

Then finally, the larger boy fell to the ground on top of Lester in a series of spasms.

His hair fell away, revealing the knife that was embedded in the side of his neck, and Lester scrambled out frantically from underneath with one hand clutching a wound on his neck. He leaned against the nearest ivy covered wall and glanced up at her, his face flushed red and chest heaving rapidly.

However she didn't seem to notice, her terrified eyes fixated on the end of the passageway.

Minho stood there, his eyes wide at the sight of the writhing boy on the ground.

Qiufeng just stared, his stricken expression burning itself into her memory. Then her vision blurred out. Hot tears spilled out from her eyes as she collapsed to the ground in hysterical sobs, unable to speak, unable to breathe. Her cries were raw and distraught, her body somehow shutting down completely except for the pain in her chest. She could hear the boys around her panic, and then felt someone hauling her up. When she couldn't stand, she was carried. The reality of what she had done hit her hard.

She had murdered someone.

In front of Minho.


	14. Stay

AN: Early update because something good happened to me! \o/

This chapter is turned out longer than I thought OTL but please consider reviewing if you've enjoyed this extra long chapter! (:

* * *

"She asleep?" a voice quietly asked from the entrance. Newt leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded, talking to a hunched figure sitting on the edge of a bed. On the next bed a girl slept peacefully, her chest rising and falling to the rhythm of her breathing. Her black hair was mussed up, some strands sticking to her face and neck. A sliver of moonlight spilled into the room and unto her face, making the tear stains on her cheeks shine.

There was a pause.

"Yeah," a reply came as the dark figure beside the bed stood up and walked over. Minho exchanged a tired glance with Newt as they exited the room and closed the door quietly behind them.

"How is she?" the blond asked after a moment of walking together silently.

"Fine, I think." Minho held out his arms for the other to see. "That shank only quietened down after I set her on the bed and cried herself to sleep."

Newt whistled at the angry red scratch marks that were running down his arms. "She beat you up pretty bad huh."

The other rolled his eyes. "What, you thought she was going to make herself a cup of tea and sit down for a chat after this afternoon?"

Newt shook his head with a slight laugh as he pushed open the door to the meeting room. The other keepers were already waiting for them, standing and sitting around in various spots. They all simultaneously looked up at the sound, glancing up at the pair first before at Minho's arms. The Korean made a face as he noticed the stares, glaring back at them.

"How's Feng?" Alby spoke first.

"She's okay," Minho said as he leaned against a wooden pole. "Sleeping."

The dark skinned boy nodded his head as he turned to the other side of the room where a huddled figure sat on a bench, looking at the ground. It wasn't hard to tell who it was, the blond was shirtless and heavily bandaged around his shoulder and neck. Cuts and scrapes were visible along his fair body and arms where he had dragged them along the ground earlier in a desperate life or death struggle against the crazed runner. He fidgeted nervously, biting his lower lip.

"Lester." Alby folded his arms, his voice commanding. Lester's eyes flickered upwards briefly to meet the other's before looking back down. They were gunmetal grey and strangely calm in comparison to his behaviour.

"Albert and I were running together down to the outer rings." The other began and paused for a moment trying to recall the happenings before, above the vivid memory of almost dying. Lester flinched at the memory of Albert jumping at him, jaws agape and eyes wild. However he could feel the pressure of the keepers waiting for him, so he took a deep breath and continued. "We were almost there, but something caught our eyes as we were moving into more spacious passageways."

"It was a shuck griever, wedged right into a corner. Our first instinct was to run, but Albert called me back. He realized that it wasn't moving." It was a little blur, but he remembered seeing the creature just sitting right in the corner of the maze, its eyes closed and body still. If not for its weapons reflecting off the sunlight through the ivy sending flashes into the maze every time the wind blew, they probably wouldn't have noticed the well-blended monster right in front of them.

"I insisted we leave and get the others first, but that shuck face wanted to play hero." Lester's voice trembled as his breath started to quicken. "H-He wanted to be the one to save everyone, you know?"

A couple of keepers nodded to acknowledge his sentence.

"So... That shank went up to it 'just to see'. I was uneasy about sticking around, but he made it sound harmless so I just let him." A tinge of regret entered his voice. "When he was pretty close, the shucking griever stinger shot out from the vines and stung him."

"I was ready to die myself, but the griever didn't move. It just sort of sat there while Albert writhed on the ground." Lester shook his head. "So I took the chance to get him out of there, but halfway he just went shuck bat-shit crazy on me."

"So I made a break for it back to the glade, but he got me within a few metres of the doors. I yelled for help, but… Those slintheads didn't dare enter the maze. They just _stared._ " Anger made him grit his teeth towards the end. "I honestly thought I was done for, that was when I looked up and saw Feng throw something. There was a noise and then Albert's body went into shock above me, I… I took the chance and scrambled out as fast as I could."

"No one is allowed to leave the glade unless they're a runner," Alby finally said after contemplating his words. "Those shanks were just following rules."

"Rules over the risk of losing a life?" Lester spat as he stood up, his voice venomous. "I said whatever I needed to say, I'm leaving." With that, he walked quickly over to the door and slammed it shut behind him.

He wanted to keep his cool honestly, but how could he not be angry? The gladers, friends whom he had trusted and laughed with throughout his life, were about to let him die because they couldn't leave the glade. If not for Feng, he would've been dead. He wasn't close to her, having only exchanged a few words with her over the past two years, but it was enough to know she was a gentle person. She was the one whom he least expected to help him, but she did it.

The keepers watched him go before exchanging grave knowing glances with each other. Lester was angry with the gladers, and that made him dangerous. They would have to keep an eye out for him.

"He wasn't the only one," Minho spoke, drawing everyone's attention to him. "I saw a shuck griever on the way out too."

There was a pause before he spoke again, "that shucking thing was just sitting in the middle of the maze. I decided to report back to Alby, but I didn't expect that another griever would've already got a runner."

"Feng killed Albert with what again?" one of the keepers asked from another corner of the room.

"A small kitchen knife." Minho held up the weapon in question before passing it over to Alby. The silver of the knife was encrusted with red, the blood from earlier having dried over the hours.

"She threw this?" The dark skinned boy received it carefully by the handle and glanced up at Minho with a skeptical look. He wasn't entirely convinced that Qiufeng would've been able to aim and throw in that situation even if she was an experienced cook.

Minho just shrugged. "Drew it out of his neck myself."

Just then, someone cleared his throat. "Actually… I think I know why."

Alby raised an eyebrow and turned to face Frypan.

"I noticed kitchen knives going missing or becoming blunt real fast a lil over two years back." The other mused for a moment. "I had a hunch but I didn't ask because that shank seemed so innocent."

"So you're saying she's been practicing for over two years now?" Alby looked incredulously at the rest of the keepers who returned his gaze with either a shrug or a clueless look.

"Probably, unless all the shucking kitchen knives decided to go dull and walk out on their own."

Alby shook his head, not entirely sure how to handle this situation. For now at least she was confined to the bed, it would give him some time to think about it. He turned towards Minho. "Make sure your runners know to stay away from the sitting grievers tomorrow, and return as soon as you map out the changes in the maze." He turned the rest. "I'll talk to Feng myself when she's feeling better, meeting dismissed."

As they exited the meeting room, Minho turned the other way as the rest of the boys started to make their way to the hammocks.

"Not going to turn in yet?" Newt asked as he noticed.

"Just… Going to check on her," Minho replied as he threw a glance back at the blond before continuing towards the rooms.

Newt shook his head but didn't stop the other, heading to the hammocks first with the rest.

Minho opened the room door gently, expecting the girl to still be asleep. However the moment he looked over, a pair of weary eyes met his. Qiufeng was already sitting up in her bed, her hands clasped together on top of her drawn up knees. Her dark hair was undone and combed smoothly now, swept over one side of her shoulder. A hint of panic darted across her eyes as she recognized him, and she opened her mouth slightly as if to say something. But then she shut it, averting her eyes quickly and staring down at her hands.

"Hey." He managed a smile as he walked nearer to her bed. His voice was oddly loud in the stillness of the lonely room. Its only source of light was the moonlight spilling in through the window, dyeing everything in shades of black, blue and white.

"Hey." Her voice was quiet.

"You feeling better?" Minho sat down at the edge of her bed, leaning forward to see her face clearly in the dim light.

"I… Yeah." Qiufeng laughed weakly, looking up at him with a slight smile. A lock of black hair fell forward and she quickly tucked it behind her ear, before letting her hands rest on the blanket.

Minho frowned, he knew better than to believe her. She was a terrible liar since the day she stepped into the glade. The way she laughed too light heartedly or stammered with averted eyes whenever she lied, it always gave her away. He'd be shucked up to think she was telling the truth after two years of knowing her.

"It's not your fault, you know that right?" He searched her face, trying to glimpse what she was hiding underneath. Minho saw her façade break as his words touched a nerve and she flinched, looking away to avoid his eyes.

"He… He could've been saved," she whispered, her voice strained.

"Maybe, but there was no saying for sure." Minho's answer came after a short pause, calm and collected. Having handled similar situations before, he knew the answer already. "It was better to have lost one life instead of two."

Qiufeng took a deep breath before nodding slowly, letting his words sink in as she stared into the blanket. She honestly still couldn't believe this afternoon had even happened, it was so fast, in flashes of disconnected memories and wet cheeks. Even though her brain could logically process that the whole incident wasn't her fault and that she tried her best, there was still a twisting sensation in her gut that made her want to throw up. The fact that she had _killed_ another human being made her all kinds of _sick, guilty, horrified_. It felt as if her heart was crushed against a wall, and it was dizzying to just _remember_.

"What's on your mind?" Minho's voice made her snap out of her thoughts, and she glanced up into his dark eyes. She wasn't used to seeing him so serious.

"I… It's still a bit of a shock to me." Qiufeng admitted, dropping her gaze yet again. She studied the numerous ugly scars that ran across her hands in all directions, remnants of her self-training. "I didn't think I would be able to… _Kill_ him. I didn't think that I was capable of that, but in that moment I just…" Her voice faltered as she shook her head at the memory.

"Honestly if you ask me, it's either kill or be killed in the maze." The other said after a moment. "There's going to be moments where you need to make hard decisions fast, wait a second longer and you're dead."

The pressure on the side of the bed eased and she watched Minho stand up and glance down at her. "You get some rest. I'm going to turn in too, the maze ain't mapping itself tomorrow."

"W-wait, you're still going in tomorrow?" she asked in disbelief as her eyes widened.

"The grievers only shuck us up if we get too close, if we stay our distance we'll be good," he replied with a shrug as he maintained eye contact with her, sounding as if they were back in the modern world and he was just going out for a picnic or something. As if it was no big deal.

"Oh…" Her voice faltered as she looked down, her hair falling over her shoulder.

Qiufeng gripped the blanket, her knuckles turning white. He couldn't possibly be serious, even after what happened today he was still going out tomorrow? Wasn't he _worried_? The grievers were still going to be out there! They could be unpredictable, going out there was madness, it was like throwing himself into a death trap. Her face collapsed under the curtain of hair as she took in the full implication of her thoughts. Minho could _die. Tomorrow._

 _Tell him!_

Her mind screamed at her and her eyes widened as the solution became so obvious, so easy, but so... Undoable. Her heart begged her desperately to listen, to be straightforward her feelings, to just give it a try, to just. _Tell. Him_. But her mouth felt like it was sealed shut by glue and her voice had disappeared.

"Night Feng," he murmured when there was no further response from the girl.

 _Tell him!_

He walked over to the entrance.

 _Tell him!_

One hand reached to push the door open.

 _C'mon! Tell him!_

"Wait!" she blurted out loudly on impulse, turning her whole body towards the door.

Minho stopped, fingers just brushing against the surface of the door. He glanced back.

Her mouth open and shut as she tried to vocalize her thoughts, her mind hurriedly piecing together whatever words that came to mind. Her eyes frantically darted across his face as if to find a reason to speak, but it was as if the more she searched, the more confidence she lost. She felt like a deer caught in the headlights.

Minho's eyebrow arched at the way she seemed to be falling apart and together at the same time.

"St…"

 _Stay here._

 _Stay here okay?_

 _Because it's safe here. Where you're always in sight. Because the only injuries you'll get are scratches and cuts. Because I want to hear you laugh when I shuck up a recipe, because I want to see you joke with Newt, because I want you here, because I can't bear to lose you, because –_

 _I…_

She shut her mouth.

Took a deep breath.

Smiled.

"Stay…

Safe."

The concern in Minho's face was replaced by relief, and it never hurt so much before to see his familiar, cocky grin.

"Please, of course I'll be safe."

When his footsteps had faded and all was quiet again, she finally allowed her smile to waver as the world crashed down around her, leaving her with nothing but crippling loneliness and a staggering pain in her heart.

* * *

The next day she was roused by vague shouting in the background. She shifted in the bed, sleep still weighing heavily on her eyes and eventually forced herself to sit up, triggering a dull ache in her head. Qiufeng groaned and shook her head as all the memories from yesterday came flooding back into her head in flashes of pain and loud voices. However before she could fully contemplate everything that happened yesterday, the door burst open with a flurry of movement and yells.

Her head snapped to the side quickly to register Newt, Winston and a couple of other gladers hauling another boy up to the bed next to her. He was struggling and screaming wildly in an all too familiar way as Newt yelled out orders that she couldn't register quickly enough in the commotion. Clint soon appeared in a hurry, a needle on hand and that confirmed the immediate suspicion at the back of her head.

 _Stung._

Another flash of memories blinded her, the silent room at night, Minho's dark eyes, his soothing voice and how she turned away from her feelings. Her gut twisted in regret but she quickly snapped out of her thoughts and hastily left her bed to stand by Newt. She couldn't look back now, what's done was done and there was no point.

By now Clint had already injected the writhing kid with griever serum and was starting to tie up the boy's limbs with the help of the other gladers. It was weird though, him getting stung at this timing because she was pretty sure it was still daytime, the sun was still spilling its light into the room, unless… He ran too close to a griever? Qiufeng dearly hoped that was the case because if it wasn't that, there was only one other reason.

Newt ran a hand through his hair and walked away from the bedside in frustration to stand by the window. Watching his grim expression and wary eyes darting about, Qiufeng felt dread pool within her stomach as she approached his side. She wasn't quite sure if she wanted to hear the answer to her question, but she needed to know. "What happened?"

There was a pause as Newt seemed to gather his thoughts, leaning forward and staring out of the window. Then he replied, "the bloody grievers weren't taking a nap today."

"They _attacked_ the runners." Qiufeng realized as she put two and two together, her voice strangely calm. She turned her gaze towards the stone entrance. The sunlight was stronger and brighter than what she had thought, burning down on the large field. She realized the boys must've let her sleep into the late afternoon. There was a small commotion around the glade as a couple of boys ran towards the entrance joining a few others already by the door. They all had spears in their hands – In case of a fight. They all looked cautious, checking the passageway every few seconds as they moved around nervously.

"Yeah." Newt shook his head as he stood up straight and turned to leave the room. "Only Minho is back unscathed, the rest… Not so much."

He left the room and she tagged along when there were no complaints about her presence. Newt was going on to her about finding Alby and Minho quickly to get up to date on things and deciding a course from there but Qiufeng barely listened. She was still lost in the guilt that relief only came once she had heard Minho was safe.

"The runners will have to stay in." They heard Alby speaking in a low voice as they rounded the corner and saw him talking to Minho. Two of the runners that had made it back were all resting on the ground, heads resting on their arms or knees. They were breathing heavily, their shirts dark wherever sweat had soaked into the fabric. Their faces were either hidden or blank.

She quietly assessed the small group as Minho and Alby registered their presence. The rest, either they were still out in the maze or… She cringed at the thought.

Newt glanced up at Minho. "The others?"

Minho briefly looked up from the two runners before turning back grimly. "There are no others."

As if to confirm this, a griever scream pierced the air from somewhere within the maze, sending a chill throughout everyone in the glade.


	15. Redamancy

redamancy

(n.) the act of loving the one who loves you; a love returned in full.

AN: I feel that this chapter will be best read listening to this song: Listen to your Heart by DHT (unplugged version) on loop, idk I wrote it while listening to that so :X

If you've enjoyed this chapter please consider leaving a review to let me know what you think (:

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During the next few days the runners stayed in. Various boys were stationed at the entrance in shifts, in case the grievers decided to come right for the glade during the daytime. During the night time thankfully, the doors remained shut as per normal. However it didn't stop a thick fog of fear from settling over the gladers in the meantime. Griever sounds were frequent throughout the day, putting everyone on edge, be it metallic sounds echoing down the passageway or a screech that tore through the air.

Qiufeng kept to her duties as usual, feeding the hungry gladers whenever it was mealtime and helping Frypan whenever he needed her. During her free time she practiced throwing knives more than ever in the deadheads. She didn't want to become a burden to the rest when they had to leave the glade eventually, and she could feel that day was getting close. Soon.

Then, one morning she awoke and realized something strange.

She shifted in her hammock as she roused to the coolness in the air, drowsily drawing the blanket closer to her. There was a moment as she lay there, still under the spell of sleep before she realized how quiet it was. Her eyelids flickered open, and then her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Forcing herself to get up despite still hazy with sleep, she stumbled forward towards the morning light.

Qiufeng stood there for a moment, giving herself some time to wake up. Then after her mind had cleared, she realized why this morning was so unlike the others.

"No griever sounds," she breathed, her voice clear against the stillness of the glade.

"Yeah." A voice sounded behind her and she turned quickly to face Minho. "I noticed it too when I woke up this morning."

The other glanced down at her, hands on his hips. He looked as if he had already been awake for a while, all freshened up and alert. It wasn't strange because his body clock was probably tuned to waking up early to run after all these years, but then she noticed he was carrying his backpack, wearing his hand gear as well as his sports shoes.

"You're going out." She realized sharply, her eyes narrowing in disapproval.

"Yeah, I'm going grocery shopping down Maze Avenue shuck face, you want anything? Could get try to get you a griever leg for dinner." Minho laughed as he started to walk leisurely towards the East door, and Qiufeng stared at his back in disbelief as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. She sucked in a sharp breath as she broke into a small jog to overtake him, standing in his path with her arms folded.

"Aren't you just asking for it?" Her voice was incredulous, and for once she didn't think twice about asking a question.

Minho rolled his eyes, pausing in his walk and drawing his weight into one leg to stand. "Look Feng, someone's gotta go and check eventually."

"At least take someone with you." She insisted, unable to come up with something better to reply with.

"Yeah, and get more people injured?" Minho raised one eyebrow as he folded his arms.

She bit her lower lip at his answer, struggling to come up with a retort because that much was true. They had lost over four runners a few days ago, to lose any more would certainly put the gladers in a spot. However at the same time they couldn't lose Minho either, he was the best runner after all and although it was his responsibility, _she_ couldn't lose Minho either. Her eyes flickered upwards to briefly meet his gaze but at the sight of his frown she lost her confidence.

Qiufeng wasn't really given a choice in the matter. She sighed, and then was careful to roll her eyes just to act nonchalant. "Just… Be careful."

"I will." Minho smirked fondly as he walked towards her and ruffled the top of her head. There was a moment as she noticed they were standing at a rather close proximity and as she glanced up, her cheeks were suddenly kissed pink without warning. She fought back the urge to turn away, hoping it wasn't so obvious but her heart sank as she realized Minho must've noticed because he quickly took a step back and withdrew his hand.

"Don't worry you shank." He added with a quick smile before he broke into a run towards the East wall.

She watched him go wordlessly for a moment, but turned and walked back towards Homestead just before he could leave her sight for the maze.

By the time she had reached her hammock, he was gone.

"Why don't you just tell him?" someone mumbled as she sat back down and stared aimlessly into the maze.

Her eyes widened and she considered defending herself for a moment before she relented and sighed. Honestly she wasn't even surprised that some of the boys had noticed her feelings towards Minho anymore, she wasn't exactly very subtle when it came to these sort of things. That and he was her closest friend after all.

"Easy for you to say." She looked over to where Newt was lazing on his hammock, arm hung over the side as he glanced up at her drowsily. His blond hair was in a mess and his eyes were still weighed down with sleep, she guessed that he had only been awake enough to see the end of the brief interaction she had with Minho. Qiufeng shook her head as she ran a hand through her hair. "You've never experienced this before."

Newt searched her face for a moment with a strange alertness in his eyes. He contemplated telling her about the brief interest he had in her before, but decided not to complicate things further. It was only for a brief period anyway, and it happened over a year ago. Honestly most of the boys in the glade had either liked her, or held some interest in her at some point in their lives together here. It wasn't surprising since she _was_ the only girl around. That and she, after her own stage of growing up, turned out a rather pretty thing.

It was hard not to notice how her dark hair was longer, framing her face that had shed off all the baby fat from before. It was hard not to notice her fair skin that was occasionally reddened by the sun, her thin pink lips and wide eyes that often looked like a deer caught in headlights. How her body stayed slim from the exercise she implemented into her everyday mornings. How it was weird that suddenly she seemed more and more a girl after each and every glance they gave her.

By the time they had noticed the way she looked at Minho differently from the rest of them, and how only when he was around did she have a dimple whenever she smiled, they were already too close to her to try and approach her differently upon realizing their own feelings. Besides that, they were pretty sure Minho had a thing for her too, though it was difficult to tell because he was always so casual around everyone. Most of them decided to play safe and avert their eyes, and those that tried didn't even get so much as noticed.

"It doesn't matter whether or not I've been in love before," Newt eventually said as he turned his gaze away from her and closed his eyes.

Qiufeng winced at how bluntly he had put it, she didn't exactly want to call it "love" just yet.

"If there's one thing I've learnt from being in the Glade, it's that communication is key." He paused and glanced at her again. "And you're not communicating."

His words stabbed her pride because it was true, and she had to grit her teeth to stop herself from becoming defensive. She was thinking of something appropriate to respond with when Newt spoke again, this time with clear irritation.

"But neither is Minho," he growled as he sat up and ruffled the back of his head. "Shuck face could've at least told me he was going outside – Alby is going to freak out."

"He went out without permission?" Qiufeng groaned inwardly, but wasn't even that surprised really. It was just like Minho to just do whatever he wanted. But… If she had known earlier she could've used it as a big ass stop sign.

"He's Minho." Newt sighed as he got up and stretched. He turned to leave, but not before noticing the troubled look on the other's face as she gazed across the Glade. He paused for a moment to catch her eye and offered a small reassuring smile when she turned back. "That shank will be okay."

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful as she stayed in the kitchens, save for the uneasy atmosphere that had settled on the glade yet again. Initially there was a slight lift in atmosphere, especially since there were no sounds of grievers just around the corners, however it soon began to breed suspicion. The boys started to become edgy and restless again, finding the sudden quiet too good to be true. She tried her best to stay positive, but it proved difficult even for her, given the dreary mood.

Qiufeng had just finished preparing dinner when there were shouts from across the glade, and she looked up to see a couple of boys running towards the west door. She strained her neck to watch, because there couldn't be any explanation for the sudden commotion other than Minho returning. It took a moment too long and she started to have second thoughts, but then the Korean boy jogged casually into her sight as if he was just back from an exercise routine.

She sighed in relief and considered going down to greet him when the gladers started to swarm him, no doubt to ask him about the maze. So she settled for a fond smile as he tried to swat them away like flies. Qiufeng figured she would catch up with him later and continued cleaning up with new found vigour.

"Shucking grievers cleared out." He told the anxious crowd as he settled down across the circle from where she was sitting. In the end despite all the questions, Minho had saved his news for dinner, having ignored everyone for a shower. A bunch of boys crowded around him, eager to hear the news first hand. "Think it might be safe for now."

There was a moment as the atmosphere significantly lifted with a bunch of relieved sighs and murmurs once Minho had mentioned that the grievers had disappeared, and were even a few smiles in the crowd. Qiufeng herself relaxed, at least the maze was safe again for now – if he planned to go out again. She wondered briefly for a moment if he would be running the maze himself alongside the few runners that remained.

"Are you taking the runners out tomorrow?" Stan's voice rose above the excited chatter, catching everyone's attention including hers. They all watched Minho curiously. After the incident a few days ago, they had lost most of their runners and the other two seemed like they would rather throw themselves off the cliff than go back into the maze to run.

"Me and what runners." Minho rolled his eyes. "We've lost over half of 'em to the grievers."

Qiufeng's mind immediately clicked with her train of thought. There weren't enough runners anymore. But they couldn't stop mapping the maze, they can't. They needed to keep doing it for a chance to make it out of this mess. It would probably be too difficult for the small number to handle the maze by themselves though, unless…

She glanced up sharply, catching Minho's eye. There was a moment as realization crossed over his face too, but he turned away without any acknowledgement. She frowned at his lack of response, but didn't pay too much attention to it. Perhaps he got distracted. However, she soon realized there was indeed something wrong. Whenever they would make eye contact, he would avert his eyes quickly, either back to his food or to the boys around him.

 _That was weird._

It was as if he was ignoring her.

Qiufeng started to get worried. What if her impulsiveness to stop him this morning pissed him off? She stared down at her plate and tried to reason with herself, perhaps she was thinking too much. The tension from this afternoon was probably getting to her, she needed to relax. Minho was mixing with a bunch of people, so obviously he was distracted. She took a deep breath. That was it.

 _But why did something feel so off?_

She shook her head, she had to stop overthinking.

Qiufeng quickly finished up her food, and stayed for a little while for the sake of staying. When the large group of boys finally dwindled to a few, she got up and handed her plates to the sloppers with a short thanks. Eyeing the few boys that were scattered along the glade in their own groups, she searched for Minho and Newt. The two of them had disappeared sometime during dinner, probably to discuss further action regarding the runners with Alby or something.

It was weird how long they had been gone though, it had almost been an hour since she had last seen them. She gazed across the glade again rather absentmindedly, wondering if she should just leave them be for tonight and see them tomorrow morning. She mused to herself and just as she decided to head back to Homestead, a shadowy figure, two of them, caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She frowned, wondering if any of the younger boys were up to mischief – then they passed under a shred of moonlight. It was brief, but she would recognize those broad shoulders and that dirty blond hair anywhere.

Qiufeng's curiosity was piqued, noticing the way they lingered around before disappearing into the trees. What was it that they were doing that they had to be so secretive about it? She glanced around for a moment to see whether anyone was watching her, and before she knew it, she was skirting along the edge of the glade towards the deadheads, and was too eventually enveloped by the darkness of the forest.

She stepped gingerly through the trees, and somehow managed to avoid branches and dried leaves on the forest ground. Although she entered the forest from the other end, it didn't take too long to find them. Qiufeng stayed quiet and followed the whispering in the woods, hushed voices carried easily within the deadheads. She eventually glimpsed them in a little clearing near the gravestones, and darted behind a tree to listen in.

"-ot to stop being so bloody brash." The blond was saying as she approached hearing vicinity. Peering out, she noticed Minho's back was facing towards her, while Newt was standing opposite him. He would probably see her if she inched out too far. "What if you got killed out there today?"

"The maze finally drive you crazy?" Minho replied, his voice sounded irritated and she imagined him scowling. "I always know what I'm doing shank."

"Yeah?" She saw Newt frown. "Have you gotten so bloody self-absorbed that you can't even consider the feelings of the people around you?"

At that moment, her mind immediately backtracked rapidly to this morning when Newt casually commented that he knew she had feelings towards Minho and how she, herself confirmed it. Her hand flew up to clasp over her mouth _tightly_ to stop herself from gasping and she tore her eyes away from him to the tree in front of her because she was suddenly _staring so hard_ , he probably would've felt it. It couldn't be. He wouldn't dare _._ He. Wouldn't. _Dare_. Qiufeng froze just as loud thumping sounded in her ears, and realized it was her own heartbeat.

"Oh yeah I'm 'bloody self-absorbed' shuck face," Minho growled mockingly after a moment of what seemed like brief confusion. "So self-absorbed that I'm taking responsibility as the shucking keeper of the runners."

"You're right about looking after the shanks under you." Newt's voice came to a quiet. "But what about those that aren't?"

There was a pause, and Qiufeng didn't feel anything but the _growing tightness_ in her chest as the sound of her racing heartbeat started to get _intolerable_ in her ears. She instinctively moistened her dry lips, and the action itself felt of nothing but _regret._

Then Minho spoke, and it was so not like _him_ that her fists clenched and she felt something within her chest _ache_ , "w-what're you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me Minho." She thought she imagined it, but for a moment she heard Newt's voice quiver (But it couldn't be, Newt doesn't quiver, he _doesn't._ Not Newt.) And her mind was thrown into a whirl at their sudden _unlikeness_. Newt spoke again and as his words came out slow and steady, it felt as though her chest had just collapsed in on itself and she had forgotten how to _breathe_. "If you haven't noticed how Feng feels about you, you're one hell of a bloody shucked up shuckface."

There was a silence that lasted longer than it should.

"I know." Minho finally said, his voice suddenly quiet compared to a minute ago. There was a certain softness to it that made her realize he had been feigning ignorance earlier. "You think I don't see the way she looks at me? How she shies away when we're too close, the way her face lights up when I come back from the maze… I see it Newt, every single day in her eyes."

The tenderness in his voice was almost _unbearable_ to listen to.

Newt didn't even sound surprised that Minho knew all along, his voice came out almost weary. "Then why don't you spare a thought for her?"

Qiufeng squeezed her eyes shut as she pressed her back against the tree, ignoring the way the rough bark scratched against her back. Her mind screamed at her to run, but her legs stayed rooted where she was standing. She was scared. _Terrified_. Because Minho had no idea she was _here_. Standing behind a tree just a few metres away from him and so his words would be nothing but _hard truth_ served up to her on a silver platter whether she liked it or not. She didn't want to know, but yet she knew she _had_ to know.

Then, Minho raised his voice to something similar to a snarl and there were so _many_ mixed emotions within she wasn't even able to pinpoint just one. "Do you think we're on shucking summer vacation Newt? That this is a fun game we're playing? The maze is no place for a shucking romance, _especially_ when I'm keeper of the runners. You said it yourself shuck face, I could've died today. Then what? What happens to her?"

There's a moment where there was no sound but the gentle soughing of the breeze through the trees. She dared to open her eyes, gazing upwards and for a moment the night sky scattered with endless twinkling stars seemed so perfect, as if from a fairytale. For a moment, until she looked back down and watched some glimmering droplets fall to the ground before her entire vision blurred out and there was nothing but the sharp pain in her chest. The night sky was only perfect tonight in consolation for something else she had lost, because reality was never a fairytale.

"You're the one not thinking." She somehow manages to hear Minho say through the pain in her chest.

 _How could I have been so selfish?_

As the crystal clear thought crossed her mind, an overwhelming wave of emotions rose up within her, suppressedfor all the _time_ that she has held back, fighting their way out of her lungs because _shucking hell_ she _loved_ Minho (she finally _dared_ to admit but it didn't matter now anyway) and even though she had _always_ known it would be this way she just wanted to _try_ but in the end it meant _nothing._ In fact, all it turned out to be was a _burden_. She had burdened Newt, burdened Minho, all because she _couldn't_ keep her _goddamn_ feelings in check, couldn't stop caring, couldn't stop worrying, couldn't stop _loving._

Her vision cleared for a moment and she realized that she had somehow while lost in her thoughts left the deadheads on her own and she fought to keep her cool as she stumbled out of the trees. She stood there for a moment as she hastily wiped away her tears with the bottom half of her shirt, glancing across the sleeping glade for anyone that was still awake. Taking a deep breath, she clenched her fists, focusing on the feeling of her nails digging into her palm as she started to walk back quickly in long strides, head bowed low from shame.

She couldn't, _couldn't_ , burden them any further. She needed to stop. She. Needed. To. _Stop._ Stop caring more than a brother, stop worrying more than a mother, stop loving more than a friend. So that it wouldn't make her chest ache with worry whenever she waves at him as he leaves the glade, so that it wouldn't make her frown when she sees him doing whatever he wants from the corner of her eye, and so that _if,_ by any chance should the heavens decide he should _die_ while risking his life every day in the maze for _all of them_ -

Her hand was yanked back suddenly, and her eyes widened in fear as her mind ran through a panicked frenzy should she see _him_ , and all the excuses to throw out, all the facades to put on. But then she came face to face with a dirty blond haired, brown eyed boy and she just _stared_ at him because while she prepared to face Minho she just didn't know what sort of reaction to give Newt other than looking caught in the headlights.

He stared at her too, his mouth partially open in a soft pant as his eyes frantically searched her face.

And then they both just _knew._

He stood up straight, as did she, and there was a moment as they just stood there before he suddenly reached out, drawing her into a hug. The contrast of his _gentleness_ against the _aching_ in her chest was too much and she felt herself moving away in an effort to hide her vulnerability. But it was as if Newt knew because his grip tightened and she was enveloped in such an overwhelming warmth that she eventually relaxed slowly into his arms, her fists unclenching to reach for his back as she sobbed quietly into his shoulder.

And then her tears wouldn't stop because _how could she._ How _dared_ her heart wish that instead of Newt, it was Minho.


	16. Runners

AN: this chapter might be a bit meh because I didn't have much time to write it, my internship has started and it's taking all of my time I swear ugh ugh I hope you guys still enjoy reading it regardless! OTL also I want to thank you guys for all the reviews you've left, I love reading your comments even if sometimes I don't respond because I'm so busy ;A; thank you all so much for your support so far!

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When she woke up the next morning, it didn't seem any different from being dead.

She lay there for a moment, unwilling to move, trying to process everything that happened last night. After her… Rejection (She didn't know whether it counted as a rejection since Minho didn't tell it to her face, but that wasn't really his fault anyway.) Newt didn't exchange any words with her, just silently brought her back to Homestead where they both quietly turned in.

It wasn't until the blond entered her line of vision did she break out of her thoughts and look briefly at his expectant expression for a moment. It wasn't time for the gladers to wake up to attend to their duties yet so when he didn't budge, she frowned but eventually sat up. Her vision whited out from the sudden movement and her head buzzed from crying yesterday, but she managed to somehow look him in the eye questioningly as if it was just another morning.

"You alright?" Newt asked, looking her over.

"Fine." Qiufeng smiled.

He cast her an uncertain look, but beckoned for her to follow him. Curious as to why he was dragging her out this early and eager for a distraction from her thoughts, she obliged. They stepped gingerly over the other sleeping gladers, making their way over to Homestead. He led her inside, all the way to the back where a few others stood waiting for them.

Through the dim lighting, she could just about make out a few familiar faces. There was Stan from the Track-hoes, Ben and Tim from the Builders, Dave from the Slicers… Surprise flickered across her face as she recognized Lester standing in the corner, his face hidden in the shadows, and…

She felt her heart stop.

Because Minho was there, talking to Alby. It was so _normal_ that her chest ached even through the panic because she hadn't expected to face him so early in the day so she didn't have a proper plan of what to do.

She glanced at Newt, who kept his eyes focused straight ahead and refused to look at her.

"Morning lazy shank," Minho greeted with a smirk as the two approached the group.

There was a moment of silence where it seemed as though Qiufeng didn't hear him, before her eyes briefly glanced upwards to meet his and she allowed a flicker of a smile to pass across her face in acknowledgement. He frowned, noticing her weird behaviour and his gaze shifted to Newt. The other had occupied himself by speaking to Alby, and as Minho turned back to the girl in front of him, he felt a sense of uneasiness. Newt couldn't have told her about yesterday night, could he?

He shook off the unwanted thought, focusing himself. He needed to keep to the task at hand.

Alby and Newt turned to him, nodding their heads as they left the room. He saw Newt give Qiufeng's shoulder a gentle squeeze as he walked past her, to which she gave a weak smile in response. He frowned, feeling a weird squeezing sensation in his chest but decided to brush it off by turning to the small group of five. He surveyed them for a moment before he spoke.

"You shanks are gonna be runners," Minho began simply, in the most straightforward way possible.

He thought he saw Qiufeng's eyes widen a little but it was gone as fast as it came. Stan and Tim had started to talk amongst themselves in excited whispers, and while Dave and Ben did the same, they sounded less than eager.

"Why us?" Dave spoke up after a moment, his voice wary.

"Because you're all basically the best bet the glade has as runners right now, even if you're better suited for other jobs." His gaze flickered briefly to the only girl there, and she looked away. "Either that or it was already decided that you would run eventually."

Qiufeng frowned at the last sentence, wondering what that meant. He gave them a second to be excited and worried before he pulled out a key and opened up a door behind him (It was so run down that she couldn't help but find it funny that they still kept it locked, it looked like it would collapse if she had pressed her finger against it hard enough) revealing a small storage closet. There was a click and a ray of light lit the dark space as Minho flicked on a flashlight.

She stayed behind as Minho rummaged through whatever that was inside, catching a glimpse of some ropes and chains as his flashlight passed over them briefly. Her eyebrow raised when eventually it came to a rest on a box of running shoes, and she had to hold back a snicker because it seemed so _ordinary._

"Size?" She heard Minho ask Stan.

There was a moment as Stan just stood there with a blank look on his face, before his face lit up. He bent down, pulling off one of his shoes and took a look inside. "Ten."

Minho almost immediately threw a pair of blue and white shoes over his shoulder, and Stan dropped his old shoes, somehow managing to catch his new pair between awkward hops and skips.

"Eight." Tim offered confidently and was thrown a pair of yellow and grey ones.

While Dave stepped up to be next, Qiufeng briefly wondered if they even had sizes for girls. Her feet weren't that large, so it would really turn out to be a surprise if they somehow had shoes that fit her.

As Ben received a pair of sleek white shoes, she stepped forward only to be personally handed a medium sized package by Minho who had stood up and turned around. She gave him a weird look before examining the box closely. Even in the dim lighting she could make out some foreign characters that were written neatly on the wrapping paper. However after a second look she realized they begun to look familiar. It took a moment, but somehow even through her lost memories she could put a name to the characters because it was her language.

秋凤

Her name.

"Figured it was yours, it seems as though the creators _want_ you to run." Minho said with a shrug as she focused on the neat handwriting.

She sat down beside the boys that were lacing up their shoes and tore away the paper, careful not to damage her written name. Lifting the lid of the box, a slim digital watch was laid right on top of the contents. It was black and very simple, the digits displayed in a bright red across the screen.

A small movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she watched as Minho dropped a black watch on each of the boy's laps. "Put it on and never take it off. Your life might depend on it," he said, before disappearing into the darkness of the room again.

Qiufeng quickly wore it, buckling it shut before turning back to the package. There was a soft fabric lying there next, and she pulled it out without thinking. There was a moment as she stared at the black sports bra in front of her, her face turning as bright a red as the lining before stuffing it back in quickly.

There was a quiet chuckle from the side that she recognized almost immediately, and she focused digging deeper, eyes never leaving the package on her lap. Eventually she pulled out a pair of trainers, and like the rest of the items inside the box, they were black and lined in red.

There was a moment as she admired the color, before she pulled them on and quickly laced them up while Minho started to ramble on again. "Here's a backpack, water bottles, lunch box, some shorts and t-shirts." He dropped each item on the ground next to all of them as he listed them off, before pausing.

Qiufeng looked up to see him holding a few pairs of tightly cut underwear, made from a shiny white material and she averted her eyes as her face turned bright red again. "These bad boys're what we call Runnie-undies. Keeps you, um, nice and comfy," he said, more so to the boys than to her.

The atmosphere lifted for a moment as there were some awkward chuckles from the boys as they each took one, all instinctively knowing the meaning of what he had said.

After that, they were all given some time to change into their new clothes before meeting back outside the closet. Qiufeng was one of the first to return, taking some time to step around experimentally as she tested the soft padding of her new shoes. She did a little graceful twirl at the end as the rest came back and Minho shook his head. "You were probably a shucking ballerina before this whole mess, I swear."

Without thinking, Qiufeng made a face. They both averted their eyes after her instinctive response, Minho in some brief confusion after the lack of acknowledgements the whole morning, and Qiufeng in panic that she had forgotten to ignore him.

"Hurry your asses, I still need to show you the weapons." He cleared his throat after a moment as he walked to the back of the closet.

Minho took the time to studiously reply a few questions from Ben as he pulled away a few boxes away from the back wall, revealing a small trap door. He lifted it to reveal a flight of wooden stairs leading into a blackness, and stood back to let them peer into the darkness. "Keep 'em down here so shanks like Gally can't get to them. Come on."

He went first, and then no one else followed. Qiufeng looked around quizzically, wondering what was the hold up before realizing everyone's gaze were on her, waiting for her to go first. She rolled her eyes and descended the stairs quickly before Minho could rush them.

A light flickered on just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, and she entered a room about thirty square feet big. There were weapons, _everywhere._ Wooden poles, metal spikes, saws, knives, even swords. Whatever weapon you needed besides technologically advanced weapons, this room probably had. They even had an entire wall dedicated to archery, with wooden bows, arrows and spare strings hanging off wall hooks.

Qiufeng wandered over to where the knives were displayed, or more like thrown. It was a wooden trunk, with its top open and leaning against the wall. Knives were stacked messily inside, thrown haphazardly around after a long day in the maze. She reached in and picked out a small one, about the same sized as the knife she had used to kill Albert.

"Don't use most of it," Minho commented. "But ya never know. All we usually take with us is a couple of sharp knives."

Someone appeared beside her, and she looked up to see Lester. "You better pick a few, don't think Fry's gonna appreciate anymore knives going missin' in the kitchen," he said, with the corner of his mouth quirked up. She managed a smile in response.

Then Minho's voice rang out into the room. "Pick a couple weapons of your choice, make sure they're nice and sharp. We'll go get breakfast after this and pack our lunch since Feng isn't doing that for us no more. After that I wanna spend sometime in the Map Room before we head out."

Qiufeng turned back to the chest and picked a few more knives, shoving them into a holster that she then wrapped around her thigh. Once ready, she joined the rest near the exit of the basement and they headed back up to get some food from Frypan.

About half an hour later, fed and packed, they were all brought to the map room. Qiufeng had always been curious about this room, she had been here long enough to know what was inside, but had never been inside herself nor did she try to ask anyone about it. Minho spun the wheel-handle until there was an audible click from inside, before pulling. The door swung open with a squeak.

He stepped aside, motioning for her to go in first.

Qiufeng allowed herself to glance at him briefly before stepping into the room. She was curious, but cautiousness reminded her to watch her step.

A coppery scent greeted her as she was inside fully, so strong that she could almost taste it through slightly parted lips. Minho hit a switch, and some several rows of fluorescent lights blinked to life. It was a rather simplistic room than what she had expected, with walls bare of decoration and only a wooden table in the middle surrounded by eight chairs. Each seat had its own neat stack of paper and pencils, for documenting the maze each day Qiufeng assumed. Besides that the map room only contained eight closed trunks, evenly spaced with two to a wall.

"Welcome to the Map Room," Minho said as he walked over to the head of the table. "As happy a place as you could ever visit."

He grabbed a piece of paper, starting to draw. They gathered around and watched him sketch a box that took up the entire page, filling it with smaller boxes three rows by three columns. He scribbled the word 'GLADE' in the middle box, and then numbered the outside squares from one to eight, starting in the upper left corner and going clockwise. Lastly, he added some little notches here and there.

"There are the Doors," Minho began as he flipped the paper around for them to see. "You know about the ones from the Glade, but there are four more out in the Maze that lead to Sections One, Three, Five, and Seven. They stay in the same spot, but the route there changes with the wall movements every night." He finished and slid the paper towards them.

"So we have the Glade, surrounded by eight sections, each one a completely self-contained square and unsolvable since we began this freaking game. The only thing even approaching an exit is the Cliff, and that ain't a very good one unless you like falling to a horrible death." Minho tapped the Map. "The walls move all over the shuck place every evening—same time as our Doors close shut. At least, we think that's when, because we never really hear walls moving any other time."

All of them crowded around to study the map that Minho had passed over, curious murmurs coming from the new runners.

"We always have at least eight Runners, including the Keeper. One for each Section. It takes us a whole day to map out our area—hoping against hope there's an exit—then we come back and draw it up, a separate page for each day." Minho glanced over at one of the trunks. "That's why those things are shuck full of maps."

 _At least eight runners._

Qiufeng glanced up to where Minho was seated, and then towards Lester. One of the two runners that had survived the massacre that day asked to quit, too afraid to continue running. Alby and Minho let him, a nervous runner was as good as not a runner. The other runner was probably out in the maze already, trying to cover whatever ground he could cover. The rest were being replaced by them.

"After you do your running and mapping of the day," Minho said as he stood up and stepped over to one of the trunks that was leaning against the wall. "We take those mappings and throw 'em in here."

He bent down and lifted the lid of the trunk, bringing it to rest against the wall. Inside there were four stacks of maps, almost all filled to the brim. From the top Qiufeng could see the same rough sketches that Minho had mapped out, but with some differences as well as a date, name and section label on the top right corners.

Minho continued, "we figured out the walls were moving right at the beginning. As soon as we did, we started keeping track. We've always thought that comparing these day to day, week to week, would help us figure out a pattern. And we did—the mazes basically repeat themselves about every month. But we've yet to see an exit open up that will lead us out of the square. Never been an exit."

Qiufeng felt her hopes drop a little at Minho's bluntness. They had been running for three years after all, if there hasn't been an exit within these few years what made them think there would be an exit any time soon? There was a quiet pause as the five new runners including herself flipped through a couple of the papers, silently contemplating if running was truly something to be invested in especially after being trapped for so long.

"Honestly if there hasn't been an exit, what makes you think there will be?" Dave finally asked as he looked up from a stack of maps.

Minho shrugged. "It's kind of depressing I know, but we don't know what else to do. Can't take a chance that one day, in one spot, somewhere, an exit might appear. We can't give up. Ever."

For once, Qiufeng was relieved that Minho had a stubborn ass attitude. As bad as things were, giving up would only make them worse.

He pulled several sheets from the trunk, some maps from the most recent few days before the attacks. "We compare day to day, week to week, month to month, just like I was saying. Each Runner is in charge of the Map for his own Section. If I gotta be honest, we haven't figured out jack yet. Even more honest—we don't know what we're looking for. Really sucks, man. Really freaking sucks."

"But we can't give up." Qiufeng offered when no one else spoke, staring at the ground. Then in a quiet voice almost to herself, "we promised we would go beyond the walls."

Minho smiled nostalgically for a moment as he caught her whisper. "Right. We can't give up."

He returned the papers to the trunk and closed it before standing. "Well, we gotta bust it fast since we took time in here— Because there's quite a few of you, we'll be splitting you in half so you guys can learn faster and better. Stan and Tim, you'll go with Lester. Ben and Dave, with me."

There was a pause as his gaze flickered over to Qiufeng. "You're the odd one, so pick who you wanna go with."

Her eyes widened as her gaze passed between the groups, already split into two accordingly. Minho's expression was expectant, and Lester didn't look too concerned. It was as if her decision was already made.

She felt her chest ache again as her gut tightened.

 _It's better this way._

"I'll go with Lester." Qiufeng announced, drawing some surprised expressions from the gladers in front of her.

She gritted her teeth, mouth tightly shut as she focused her eyes on Lester's group and walked over to where Stan and Tim were standing, all the while trying to fiercely convince herself, ' _it's better this way._ '

"Right." Minho acknowledged after a brief pause as she studiously arranged the knives in her holster so that she could pretend she didn't hear the hint of confusion in his voice because ' _it's better this way_.'

"You guys will head to the east wall and we'll head to the west." He said again after another moment when there was no further response from her, and she turned away to face the east, refusing to make eye contact with him as they went their separate ways. "Well, let's go runnin'."

 _It's better this way._


	17. His Debut

AN: Things are getting a bit busier for me so next week I might not be able to update right on schedule, I'm really so sorry about that! OTL I usually write my chapters in advance to update according to schedule, but this is actually the last chapter I have that was written in advance so... Basically I'll have to try to find time throughout the week to complete the next one and if I can't I'm really sorry OTL I'll do my best to complete it though!

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They ran through the East Door into Section Four, jogging down several corridors. Qiufeng ran right beside Lester while Stan and Tim followed right behind, turning left and right aimlessly as the more experienced runner led the way. Sunlight spilled over the walls unto the ivy and some stone blocks on the ground, giving everything a sharp clarity that could only happen in the mornings. She saw Lester's gaze shift towards her every now and then out of the corner of her eye, and could feel his curiosity but she chose to ignore it, running silently.

The small group kept at it for a few minutes, and she was a little surprised at how well her stamina was holding up. Although she had implemented exercise into her daily regimen, she wasn't quite sure how well she would've fared while actually running the real deal. It was a relief to see that she wasn't lagging behind the group, and far from getting tired.

"This leads from Section Four to Section Three," Lester's voice suddenly broke her out of the running trance she was in, and she glanced up to take note of what seemed to look like a large doorway, without a door. "Like Minho said, these passages are always in the same spot, but the route here might be a bit different because of the walls rearranging themselves."

They continued down a long corridor, passing several turns. When they finally reached the end of the passage, Lester slowed down to a light jog and reached behind him to pull out a notepad and pencil from a pocket in his backpack. He scribbled something quickly, where Qiufeng tried to catch a glimpse but his handwriting was to terrible to read, before shoving it back into the pocket hastily.

"After running for a few months… You'll start to rely mostly on memory," the blond explained breathily as they continued running, and through that she realized her own breathing was also starting to become heavier. "Usually we'll just note down what's different from yesterday, so we can use that map to make the current day's map, but because we haven't mapped anything from a week ago…" He trailed off as he reached for his notebook again.

They ran for a short while before they reached an intersection. They had three paths to choose from, left, right or straight ahead, however Lester turned left without needing to think. He pulled out a knife as he did so, and cut a large piece of ivy from the wall. The blond threw it unto the pathway behind him, directly in the centre and then kept on running.

"Markings for later." Qiufeng guessed, glancing towards him.

"Markings for later." Lester repeated in confirmation, nodding his head as they headed down towards another intersection. "Your turn Feng, next intersection Stan will cut and after that Tim."

"Right." She turned back to face front as one of her hands reached for the nearest knife in her holster. As they neared the intersection, Feng grabbed at the loose ends of the ivy and made a quick slice through. Her mood perked when she realized she was successful in getting a clean cut, working in the kitchen really had its benefits, so much so that she almost forgot to throw it behind her until Lester reminded her hastily.

"Oops!" She offered a sheepish grin after she frantically tossed the ivy unto the ground and she turned back.

Stan was almost as good as she was, getting it on his first try as well. It wasn't very surprising since he was in the Track-Hoes before this. Tim however, wasn't as great. He had to sprint forward several times to catch up with the group after throwing the ivy on the ground. Even so he learnt quickly, and stopped having to sprint after a few turns.

After what seemed like forever of running and cutting with some short breaks in between, Lester finally slowed to a light jog, and then stopped altogether. "Let's lunch," he huffed as he swung off his pack and pulled out his water bottle and his lunchbox.

Stan and Tim collapsed on the ground without needing to be told twice, hastily reaching for their water bottles. They quickly guzzled down what seemed like a quarter before Lester yanked their bottles away and scolded them like bad children. Qiufeng watched as she herself pulled out her water bottle, finding it within herself to laugh at their antics. They soon settled down into a short silence, each of them busy rejuvenating themselves for the rest of the trip.

Qiufeng was quick to finish her meal, and packed up in preparation for leaving. Just as she shoved her water bottle back into her backpack, she heard someone approach her. "How's running for you?" Lester asked as he squatted down beside her, back against the wall.

"It's a little tough but manageable," she replied as she zipped up her bag. There was a moment as she considered her next few words, and then glanced at the other. "I'm surprised you're still willing to run after what happened to you and then the attacks that followed."

Lester shrugged. "Yeah, I guess – the team is super short on people now. If I were to quit as well it would probably give Minho a headache."

"I'm surprised that you didn't join his team," he continued without waiting for a response from her.

Qiufeng was quick to avert her eyes. "Is it?" she laughed a little nervously.

"Yeah, I mean, Newt, Minho and you, everyone knows you're a close knit trio." He chuckled. "Did something happen?"

"No!" she replied, a little too fast and a little too loud. "I, I mean, it's just that I'm already around Minho's obnoxious ass like half the time, running the maze with him would probably give me more shucking grievances than I asked for."

"Right." Lester laughed, obviously not really buying her words and stood up after a moment. He swung his backpack back on and motioned to both Stan and Tim who started to pack up as well. Turning away, he was about to break into a run when he paused and glanced over his shoulder at Qiufeng who was tightening her laces. "Hey."

She looked up. "Hm?"

"Thanks," he said and then looked away. "I mean, for last time."

Her expression softened as she realized what he meant, and she smiled even though he was staring straight ahead. "No worries."

The rest of the day was a blur of exhaustion to Qiufeng, they ran for what seemed like forever with some breaks in between that were so short they didn't feel like actual breaks. When they finally returned back to the glade, she felt as if she would never be able to walk again much less run. Mapping the day's route in the Map Room was a brief affair after Minho returned with Dave and Ben in tow as well – apparently Dave and Ben weren't in a much better state than their group was.

All of them were _exhausted_. So much so that when the box alarm sounded and the glade buzzed about with speculations of the new greenie, they couldn't give a flying shuck about it, because they didn't have any energy left.

Needless to say, when the box finally came up half an hour later, they were more relieved that the bunch of chattering gladers had left Homestead than curious about whatever shank that had been thrown up by the box. Qiufeng saw Minho leave with them though, through half closed eyes and a blur vision. It made sense since he was an experienced runner so he wouldn't need as much rest, and she couldn't help but have a newfound respect for him. Then her fists clenched. She quickly shook away her admiration that was indirectly feeding the warmth in her heart, and curled herself up into a ball for a well-deserved nap.

She awoke to someone gently shaking her shoulder, and she looked up drowsily to see Newt standing beside her hammock. A delicious smell wafted into the room, and she realized it must be dinner time. She also realized that her entire body ached with weariness and her muscles were screaming.

"Good god," Qiufeng groaned as she slowly sat up. "I don't know how I'm going to run tomorrow."

Newt chuckled as he offered her a hand. "Running ain't such a fun job now is it?"

"Frypan needs to take me back when he can," she laughed light-heartedly as she took it. "I don't think I'll be able to do this every single day."

"You can tell that to him at dinner." Newt pulled her up easily, running a hand through his hair after. "I've already got my hands full with the new greenie, he's a troublesome one."

"Well you certainly seem to be rather free for having your hands full." Qiufeng smiled as she gingerly made her way to the entrance of Homestead, muscles still protesting from earlier this afternoon.

"I needed a break, so I chucked him to lil fat shank." Newt explained as he gestured over to the kitchens where everyone was at, waiting for the food to be passed out. He motioned more specifically to where the pudgy young boy stood, his curls in a mess as he badgered for a spot in the queue. Right next to him was an older boy, perhaps her age or younger. He looked significantly traumatized, as if he hadn't gotten over arriving in the Glade yet.

He had a lean muscular body and brown hair. His eyes were hazel, burning fiercely as he backed Chuck up when the older boys stood over them. Once the other boys had settled down and they had a spot in the queue, Chuck turned to him for a hi-five, to which he managed a small grin through his weary expression and obliged.

Qiufeng smiled as she watched them interact. "He'll be fine, just probably needs some time to adapt, we all did," she paused for a moment as she glanced over to Newt, "so, what's his name?"

The blond thought for a moment as he scratched the back of his head, and eventually he spoke.

"I think he said his name was… Thomas."


	18. Weird

AN: I'm so sorry about the late update guys – I've been so busy of the late with my internship, I have close to zero time for myself honestly ugh. Anyhow I'll be temporarily removing the update schedule, as you can probably tell that I can't update on time anymore. So expect updates to be random for at least the next two months or so, I'll just update when I can and whenever I have a chapter ready. I apologize for the current arrangement but it's the best I can do at the moment, thank you so much for understanding!

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"There's a _girl_ here?" was how Thomas greeted her when she went up to say hi, his voice incredulous as if this was the most ridiculous thing he had encountered all day compared to zero memories and huge moving doors.

Qiufeng sat down, sandwiching him between herself and Newt. The celebration was ongoing, but unlike the other Greenies, this one completely refused to partake in it. He chose to settle himself near a log and sulk, kind of like herself when she had her celebration and she couldn't help smiling nostalgically at the memory. She almost couldn't believe it had been two years since she had arrived at the glade, time seemed to pass so fast – so many things had happened, to her, to them.

"Well, I don't think I look like a boy anymore, at least I hope not," she replied and in a showcase of pretence worry, glanced down at her body and gave herself a once over.

Newt laughed before explaining to the Greenie who looked perplexed – though he wasn't sure whether it was because the other still couldn't comprehend there was a girl here or because he didn't understand Qiufeng's joke. "Everyone thought she was a boy when the box sent her up because her hair was short of a few sticks to being a chicken nest, both literally and figuratively."

Qiufeng laughed fondly at the memory as Thomas slowly nodded and then glanced at them again. "So why just one girl?"

"Shuck if I know." She shrugged as she took a swing of Gally's concoction. "Name's Qiufeng by the way, everyone just calls me Feng though."

"Thomas," the boy curtly replied.

"Hell of a first day Greenie." Newt commented after a moment. He glanced over to Thomas who was staring straight ahead, right at the tightly shut East Door. The dark haired boy managed another slow nod of acknowledgement and broke his gaze away to look at the ground instead.

Newt exchanged a glance with Qiufeng who grinned awkwardly and nodded towards Thomas again. She didn't know what to say either, this Greenie was _a little_ hard to crack. Jokes bounced off his tough exterior, and he seemed more displeased than anything at their company. Newt rolled his eyes at her lack of initiative and grabbed a mug from the ground, offering it to the other. "Here," he said in between bites of the skewered chicken he was holding, "put some hair on your chest."

When Thomas looked at it suspiciously, the blond gave a quick nod of encouragement and Qiufeng had to cough once to hide her growing anticipation for the newbie's reaction. Everyone knew that Gally's drink tasted nasty, especially the first time you downed it and she particularly enjoyed the weird expressions that came over a Greenie's face whenever they first partook in it. Thomas threw her a suspicious glance too, and she had to hide her laughter with an innocent wide smile.

He brought it to his lips, and daringly took a large gulp – resulting in him spitting it out almost immediately right after on the ground. Qiufeng burst into loud laughter as Thomas made a disgusted sound, coughing out whatever he could while Newt chuckled beside him.

"Oh my god, what is that?" He continued to hack harshly.

"We don't even know," Qiufeng replied while laughing, amusement evident in her voice.

"It's Gally's recipe." Newt continued with a grin as he glanced backwards at the bonfire where everyone was seated around and chatting.

Thomas nodded his head in some sort of understanding as to why it tasted so bad, and Qiufeng gave him a cheeky wink as she lifted a single finger up to her lips. "It's a trade secret."

"Yeah well, he's still an asshole." Thomas replied as he briefly met her eyes before glancing back to where Newt was looking.

The blond turned back and offered a sympathetic smile before speaking, "he saved your life today," and then to Qiufeng who had raised an eyebrow questioningly, "tried to wander out into the maze when we weren't looking, this shank."

For a moment Qiufeng wondered if they had gotten themselves another Minho, but she shook the thought away and gave a small smile. "You don't want to go out there, trust me," she paused as she took another sip of the nasty drink, "the maze is a dangerous place, especially now."

A low groan and echo of something heavy moving sounded, making her glance up quickly towards the doors with wary eyes. Her eyes darted all over the doors and once she was sure they were still tightly shut, settled back down against the log hastily. Thomas noticed her jumpy behaviour as he quietly observed from beside her, but didn't ask – yet.

"We're trapped here aren't we," he eventually said, more of a sentence than a question.

Qiufeng furrowed her brows as she gave him a look. "Oh no, we're _definitely_ having summer camp here." Her voice threatened to give away her bitter feelings from the night before and she took a deep breath to calm down.

Thomas shrugged.

"For the moment we are," Newt said in reply to his earlier question. There was a pause before he turned backwards towards the bonfire again. "But," he pointed towards a small group of boys that were mingling by the fire, "you see those guys, there by the fire."

"Those are the runners." Qiufeng continued without needing to look back, her voice a little sad. She was supposed to be sitting with them today to get to know them better, or so she wanted to until she laid eyes on Minho. Without even needing to think her body instinctively changed her course of destination and walked towards Newt instead. "That guy in the middle," she glanced tentatively over her shoulder to where Minho was sitting on a short barrel, still in the midst of his meal. "That's Minho."

As if he knew that his name was called, the other looked up straight at them, _her_ , and Qiufeng quickly averted her eyes and looked back front.

Their brief interaction didn't escape Thomas's eyes, but he said nothing at the moment. Wouldn't be wise to bring it up now.

"He's the keeper of the runners." Newt took over. "They run the maze, mapping it, memorizing it – trying to find a way out."

Thomas cast a skeptical glance at him, and by the looks of his reaction it seemed as though Chuck had told him the basics of what's going on around here – being in the maze and all. "How long have they been looking?"

"Three years," Qiufeng answered with a small grin, a lock of black hair falling over her shoulder as she turned towards him.

"And they haven't found anything?" The brown haired boy furrowed his brows as if disbelieving of their efforts.

"It's a lot easier said than done." Newt laughed as he motioned to Qiufeng. "She would know, it was her first time running today."

"I honestly don't know how I'm going to run again tomorrow." She gave a meek smile, feeling the dull ache within her muscles.

She saw Thomas light up with a ton of questions written all over his face, but before he could ask Newt suddenly held his hand up. "Listen."

Thomas obliged even through his itchy mouth and the sudden silence allowed them to hear a low rumble in the distance, like rocks being grinded against one another slowly. It was followed by a loud moan and Qiufeng through the terror that pooled in her stomach, imagined a giant stirring in his sleep. Although it had been two years since she arrived here, the sounds at night never failed to unnerve her especially after the past week or so.

"That's the maze," Newt paused to glance at Thomas, "changing." Then on a lighter tone he continued, "changes every night."

"How's that even possible?" The brunet asked as he watched the walls with some sort of awe and wonder.

"You've seen the doors close right before your eyes and you still don't believe us?" Qiufeng managed a somewhat cheerful laugh.

Thomas stayed quiet as if contemplating her words, before Newt spoke again and broke his thoughts, "you can ask the people who put us in here if you ever meet the bastards."

There was another low rumble and a small vibration passed through the ground underneath them.

"Listen, the truth is," Newt briefly glanced at the girl beside Thomas, "the runners are the only ones who really know what's out there."

 _At least the more experienced ones do._ Qiufeng added inwardly to herself as she drew up her knees to her chest and rested her head on them.

"They're the strongest and the fastest of us all and it's a good thing too because if they don't make it back before those doors close," Newt jabbed his index finger several times towards the doors they were facing, "then they're stuck out there for the night."

"And no one's ever survived a night in the maze." Qiufeng whispered as she turned to look at Thomas who was staring at her, them, in disbelief. She met his gaze levelly as she continued to rest her head on her knees. She could see uncertainty and fear in his eyes, which was good but then a hint of curiosity entered them. He would certainly be a handful.

"What happens to them?" Thomas asked once more and she laughed. He was certainly open with his questions.

"Grievers," she said simply with a ghost of a smile on her face. She stood up and motioned to Newt to do so as well. "Come on, we can't sit here all night can we?"

"Yeah, that's enough questions for one night." He sat up and stretched. "You're supposed to be the guest of honour."

And once the last three words passed his lips Thomas's eyes lit up in realization and he shook his head as Newt pulled him up and refused to listen to his objections.

"Part of the integration Greenie, can't escape it." Qiufeng added with a laugh once the brunet was on his feet.

They took a leisurely stroll along the bonfire as Newt introduced the various gladers by their jobs one by one, greeting them casually as they went by. Clint, Jack, Frypan… She could name every single one of them by heart. Newt eventually went on to talk about the buildings and their purposes as well, and Thomas listened intently.

"…and lastly, here's Homestead." Newt beckoned to the rickety shelter. "You'll be sleeping here tonight…" The blond trailed off as he tilted his head over to look at something that had caught his attention, and Qiufeng looked over as well.

"What is it?" Thomas asked, waiting for the rest of his explanations.

"Isn't that… Chuck?" Qiufeng asked as she squinted her eyes at a shadowy figure that was moving around in the dark behind Homestead. It clambered up unto a wooden box hastily in an attempt to be silent and then knocked on the surface in front. There was no doubt it was Chuck, he was the only one short enough to need a step up for anything, and his pudginess was unmistakeable.

"Probably up to no good as usual." Newt scratched the back of his head.

By now Thomas had peered over as well and had recognized his friend. "I'll go check it out." He offered, and broke into a jog before they could respond.

There was a moment as Newt and Qiufeng watched as Thomas approached Chuck, they seemed to squabble for a bit, their figures engaging in a small scuffle, before calming down. Then Thomas seemed to stand aside to wait for Chuck to finish whatever he was doing.

"What're they doing?" Qiufeng crossed her arms as she tapped her foot impatiently.

Just when she had about enough and was about to go get the two of them, a scream pierced the air – that of a young boys's – straight from the direction of Thomas and Chuck. It was followed by a loud crash from instead Homestead, and then a long string of swearwords by a scratchy voice bubbling with anger. It was almost too easy to recognize – Gally was unhappy most of the time around the glade so his voice was perpetually like that.

She saw one of the figures take off into the open glade, whereas the other one sort of just stood there as if it wasn't quite sure what had just happened. It wasn't hard to tell who was who.

"Ah, it's Chuck's famous toilet prank." Newt realized dryly just as she did.

"I'm gonna kill you, shuck-face!" Gally screamed as he stomped out of Homestead, looking like a furious animal on the loose.

He immediately pointed at Thomas. "Come here!" he yelled and Qiufeng snapped out of her own thoughts as well. Newt was way ahead of her, moving up towards the raging beast first.

"It wasn't me, I swear." Thomas was saying as they neared.

"Wasn't you?" Gally snarled and Newt took the moment to step in. "Calm down you big lug, he was with us," he said as he stepped in between the two of them.

"It was that lil rascal Chuck who pulled that prank on you." Qiufeng rolled her eyes. "Of course that doesn't mean you should go after him either – I'll talk to him."

"I'm not a dong," Gally spat. "I saw Chuck's fat face in the window." He turned towards Thomas and pointed at Thomas's chest. "But you better decide right quick who you want as your friends and enemies, hear me? One more trick like that—I don't care if it's your sissy idea or not—there'll be blood spilled. You got that, Newbie?" But before Thomas could answer Gally'd already turned to walk away.

"Sorry," Thomas muttered, and Qiufeng gave him a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't be too hard on yourself, it's not your fault."

"I know you two," Gally suddenly added without looking back. "I saw both in the Changing, and I'm gonna figure out who you two are." He disappeared back into the Homestead, and all of them relaxed for a moment. There was a moment before someone spoke, voice clearly embarrassed.

"Sorry—if I'd known it was Gally, I never would've done it, I swear."

They turned to see Chuck standing there, staring at the ground. Qiufeng sighed, she ought to tell the boy off but perhaps he had enough for the day already.

"Well it's been a long day, time to turn in shanks," Newt said after a moment and she nodded in agreement, suddenly aware of the sleepiness that had been pushed to the back of her head earlier. It seemed as though the nap she had before dinner wasn't enough to keep her awake for too long, and not to mention she had to run tomorrow as well. Running had certainly lost all its glamour.

She gave the two younger boys a short wave as she turned to leave for her hammock along with Newt. "We're gonna head in first, don't get into any more trouble."

Just as they turned out of sight, she heard Thomas laugh out loud, something they couldn't get out of him since he had arrived in the box.

"He's a weird one, that guy," she commented as she swung herself into her hammock.

"Honestly in a world full of moving walls and half flesh half animal creatures, I don't even know how to define weird anymore." Newt sighed as he ruffled the back of his head.

Qiufeng laughed before turning over and wrapping herself up in her blanket. Sleep came easily, especially after what she'd been through earlier that afternoon. It'd been one endless—and strange—day.


	19. Tension

AN: Happy New Year guys! :D Here's an update as a NY's gift to thank you all for the support and love you've given me and my fanfiction in 2015 xD Also thank you so much for the reviews! 3 Although I haven't been replying to them because I've been so busy, I appreciate every single one of them and will try to reply during my free time~ They mean so much to me! 3 I hope that y'all will continue to read Redamancy, and enjoy the story even in 2016! (:

* * *

Qiufeng woke up the next morning feeling like she hadn't slept at all, and when she tried to get up it felt as if her whole body turned into a rusty machine during the night before. _Everything_ ached, from her muscles to her bones and it felt as if she needed to literally oil her joints to even get the day going. Briefly she wondered if it was too late to tell Minho she didn't want to run anymore, but decided to shove the thought aside and forced herself to stand up.

She stretched before giving the area a quick once over. Gentle snores filled Homestead, with most of the boys still asleep at this timing, and everything seemed normal – except that Newt was missing from his hammock.

Qiufeng frowned, before turning towards the open glade. Her eyes fell onto two shadowy figures further away, walking towards the west wall, and she relaxed when she recognized Newt's lean silhouette. She figured without much effort that he was probably taking Thomas to meet their good ol' neighbours.

Without a second thought she reached for her shoes and quickly laced them up, eager to watch Thomas's reaction to the grievers. Just as she was about to leave Homestead however, someone caught her by the shoulder.

Instinctively, she smacked the hand away hastily and twisted around to see who it was.

Her eyes widened.

"And where do you think you're going?" Minho stood there, with an unamused look on his face. "Not thinking of taking off when we're running in a bit are you?"

Qiufeng almost couldn't comprehend the meaning of his words above the tone of his voice. She was startled. He had never spoken to her like that before.

"No?" She somehow managed a reply, even if her voice sounded more confused than it should've been.

Minho made a disgruntled noise and threw something at her. She just barely caught it before it hit her face and by the familiar feel of rough cloth on her hand, realized it was her bag. Glancing up at the other with a mixture of confusion and growing annoyance, she tipped her head in a silent question.

"Start packing," he answered as he turned and started down the hill. "Don't get distracted, you're starting to get sloppy."

Her annoyance level peaked, mind clicking together in a split second with the perfect comeback. However just as she opened her mouth, a loud shriek echoed across the glade. She jumped, temporarily distracted from putting Minho in his place, and turned towards the sound. Qiufeng ended up sighing when she realized it was just Thomas meeting their "neighbours" for the first time.

She glanced back to speak, however the other had already made his way too far down the hill. It would seem stupid if she tried to defend herself by then. So instead she sucked in a deep breath of air sharply and started shoving whatever necessities she required in her bag – so roughly that the boys around her were startled awake by the noise.

* * *

Half an hour later all fed and packed, she stood in the middle of the glade whilst waiting for the other runners to gather. Qiufeng was still perplexed as to Minho's earlier change in attitude towards her, and was trying to determine the cause of it. "Honestly, what is with that shank?" she hissed out loud, her growing frustration no longer containable within her mind. Any sort of conclusion was still far out of her reach and she was getting more irritable by the second.

"What is with which shank?" someone echoed her words and she glanced around to see Newt standing there with his arms folded.

"Oh it's just you," she mumbled without thinking, still lost in other thoughts.

"Ouch," he laughed awkwardly and Qiufeng realized what she had said.

"Sorry! I was just thinking about… Later!" She smiled a little too brightly and quickly changed the topic before he could probe further. "Wonder if the runners are going to be sticking to the same arrangement today, or a different one?"

"Minho mentioned that there would be something different today," Newt replied as the rest of runners started to gather around them, "he didn't specify what though."

"Anyway, just wanted to check in on you because you were making such a fuss yesterday about the muscle ache," he laughed as she made a face. "You seem alright so I'll leave you guys to it," he nodded in the direction behind her, "Minho's here already anyway."

She smiled warmly at Newt, but then once she turned to face the other direction it quickly became a frown. Qiufeng still couldn't quite put a hand on Minho's weird ass attitude to her this morning, she was pretty sure she didn't commit anything to make him angry… Right? As the other neared, she tried to get a read on his mood or feelings, anything honestly, but his face was close to a blank except for the determined glint in his eyes.

"Today, we'll be running in pairs," Minho started as the rest of the runners acknowledged his arrival. "While y'all shuck-faces are still inexperienced, we need you to start being independent in the maze – and fast. So let's take baby steps and go in pairs today so that if one of you by any shuck chance forgot what you've learnt yesterday, you can ask your partner. If both of you forget – which honestly shouldn't be the case – then good shucking luck to you."

As he ended off, Qiufeng did a quick run through of what she remembered learning yesterday. Pace yourselves, don't finish your water right away, take notes of the maze changes if you're not up to memory work yet, always remember to mark after completing a route… She was pretty sure there was a bit more, but that would probably come back to her as she ran. For now it seemed like she was prepared enough.

"…Tim will go with Dave, Ben with Samuel…" Minho briskly listed the pairing off, and she wondered if she was going to be paired with Lester again since she had requested to run with his group yesterday.

"Lester with Stan," he continued and she looked up quickly in realization to meet his unreadable gaze.

"And Qiufeng with me."


	20. Moments

AN: Hey guys! :D so well, I actually got caught up this really awesome anime, it's called **Haikyuu!** and it's about hot volleyball playing high school boys *^* I just started a **new fanfiction** about it, (that doesn't mean I'll abandon this one though so don't worry :P) and I'd really appreciate it if you guys check it out if you do watch Haikyuu and tell me what you think! :3

* * *

The early morning light spilling across the maze dyed everything in shades of bright yellow, giving everything a sharp sheen about it and Qiufeng noted as she took a deep breath that the air was as fresh as ever, mixed in with scents of the earth, dirt and ivy. There were no grievers around and therefore no death threats so far. Everything seemed optimal for a day out running in the maze. Or so it would be, if she wasn't paired up with a certain somebody.

She fought the urge to glance back at her companion, who hadn't said a word since they had left the glade. After finding out that she was being paired with him, she was pretty much shocked into silence. By the time she had plucked up enough courage to protest against the pairings, they were already at the doors and so she just decided to shut up and go with it. Even if things were, more or less extremely awkward ever since they separated from the group.

Shucking hell, this was almost as bad or actually on second thought, even worse than the time she first got her period in the maze. At least during that time she wasn't on bad terms with anyone, just Gally perhaps. Now because something happened two nights ago concerning the both of them, the thing is that they both know it but aren't sure that the other is also aware of it. It was creating this awkward tension in the air that would probably made her squirm if she wasn't running. The worst part of it was that she somehow _knew_ they were going to talk about it. Or at least that was what her gut feeling was.

They ran for what seemed like forever, both of them too immersed in their thoughts to strike up a conversation. The only time they exchanged words was when it was time to take a short water break. Minho would call out and she would acknowledge. That was pretty much the pattern. Qiufeng was quite relieved so far that the other wasn't trying to make conversation. Perhaps she could somehow escape the entire day without needing to force herself to be natural, because that was what she was worst at honestly.

Then they stopped for lunch.

They sat a comfortable distance from each other and ate in silence. When done, they rested for a brief moment before suddenly Minho, after all his silence in the maze, spoke.

"So, what's with you these few days?" he asked, his voice quiet.

"M-me?" Qiufeng answered too quickly and ended up stammering. She thought her heart might jump out of her throat. So they were _really_ going to do this huh. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she closed her eyes for a very brief moment. If she stammered anymore it'll be too obvious. "I'm good these few days, y'know, the usual."

"The usual huh." Minho's voice seemed slightly amused and she thought that she heard a hint of bitterness within it. Though it might've been her imagination because her brain was frantically trying to keep it together. "Are you sure?" he asked again. "Because it almost seems as if you've been trying to avoid me."

Expletives exploded in her head as she processed his last sentence and she swallowed slowly. Her heart seemed to swell in several emotions within that few seconds, leaving her a little breathless as she struggled to come up with a reply. "What? Really?" Qiufeng laughed awkwardly, still not quite sure of what she was feeling at the moment. "No way."

"Stop it," he said curtly.

"Stop what?" she tried to keep her voice strong but it was as though her vocal cords were being wrung.

"Stop lying." He turned to look at her and she flinched at the hurt in his eyes. Glancing away quickly, the guilt of ignoring his feelings and hers started to set in. She briefly wondered over the wave of emotions that was threatening to drown her, that if perhaps trying to do what was best for the both of them was wrong.

But then again, it _was_ for the best wasn't it? Although she had tried to ignore it all along, she knew deep down inside it herself. Until the wakeup call Minho gave her two nights ago, the maze was definitely the worst place to try and make a romance work. Emotions could get in the way of making the best decisions for the entire glade. It _was_ really _for the best_. For the good of the gladers, their friends, for herself, for him. It was honestly _better this way_.

For some reason it seemed as though she was trying to convince herself more so than anyone else though.

"Look, it's for the best okay?" she eventually said, her voice threatening to give way. Before he could say anything else though, she took a deep breath and spoke again. "Look, we both…" she faltered for a second but then pushed forward. "We both know, what's going on here."

" _I_ know, what's going on." Qiufeng turned to meet his gaze and she _tried_ to keep her emotions in check but everything was just coming out unintentionally in her voice. Spilling out into the open for him to see. Hurt, regret, anger, sadness, pain, longing and so much more she couldn't even put a name to. Then trembling, she averted her eyes and whispered, _"I heard you talking to Newt the other night."_

She didn't look back at him, so he lowered his gaze as well and stared at the ground in front of him. Minho figured that something was up, but he didn't think that she had heard the entire conversation that he had with Newt the other night. He had an inkling that perhaps maybe Newt told her about the entire thing, that's why she was acting so differently. But he didn't expect…

"I'm sorry," he finally said after they had sat there in silence for a few minutes.

"We should get going," she eventually said, standing up after grabbing her bag.

He followed wordlessly, wondering if perhaps this was really the right way to do things. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. The ideal choice was to keep emotions out of this, but in the end they were all human after all.

"It's okay," she said, as if she read his mind. Turning back to him, she smiled. "It's just… Better this way right?"

Minho felt the urge to reach out and touch her, but it seemed as though it would just encourage all the wrong things, all the wrong feelings. For both of them.

 _You say that it's okay, but…_

Qiufeng felt something wet slip down her cheek and her eyes widened in surprise. "Oops…" she mumbled with an awkward laugh, lowering her head. She hastily wiped it away with the back of her palm, but the more she wiped, the more it wouldn't stop.

Minho approached the shaking girl slowly and took her by the shoulders. She looked up, startled out of crying for that moment. He searched her face, saw all the tears clinging to her eyelashes, all the emotions in her eyes, her flushed cheeks, her trembling lips. Another teardrop emerged from the corner of her eye and hung there. He brushed it away gently.

 _Even if it's just for this moment…_

"Qiufeng, I- " he started, before suddenly a piercing shriek erupted from somewhere in the maze, startling them both.

Both of them instinctively looked around, searching their surroundings for danger. But even when nothing but the ivy moved when the wind blew, they knew something was wrong.

"We'd better get back," Qiufeng whispered, wiping away the last of her tears herself.

"Yeah." Minho let go of her and stood back.

He gave her a minute to settle down before they both set off running as fast as they could manage without a word of what happened just a few moments before.


	21. Suspicion

AN: Hey all! So I'll probably be trying to pick up the pace with this book a little, because the main plot actually starts in the scorch. Hopefully I'll be able to try updating at least twice a week? We'll see how it goes, because I actually want to shift my focus to the second book soon HAHA

* * *

They headed for the source of the shriek, turning corners and running along the corridors as fast as they could. It took a moment but they soon realized that the shriek they heard wasn't a griever. It was most definitely a human. Qiufeng raised her eyes to the skies that were starting to turn pink and yellow. Considering the time it was now, it was plausible that a griever had already been wandering the maze and stumbled upon an unsuspecting runner.

That is if they were back to their usual timings and not just out to slaughter the next batch of runners. She felt a chill run down her back as she imagined coming face to face with the horrendous creatures that had taken out five of their runners just barely last week. She tried to think about other things, but the image of a griever ripping her body apart in various ways stayed fresh in her mind no matter how hard she tried to shove it to the back of her head.

Just then, she caught a movement from the corner of her eye. Minho had raised his hand as he slowed to a stop and she followed carefully, noting his sudden cautiousness. There were voices coming from around the corner. Whilst deep in her thoughts, she had totally stopped paying attention to her surroundings. Qiufeng chided herself inwardly, she needed to keep alert if she wanted to stay alive in the maze.

" _Ben, stop it!"_

If Ben was one half of the pair, that meant that Samuel was the one who was shouting. He sounded a little panicked and they heard Ben mumble some nonsense to himself. Pressing their backs onto the wall, they edged closer cautiously.

"She _was_ the key!" Ben's voice sounded in a low growl and she froze in place. There was only one 'she' around the glade, and that was her. " _Was_ until they dumped her here, but then… They suddenly want her back."

Qiufeng's eyes widened, and she looked up at Minho frantically. The other was still peering out from the corner of the wall, too focused on what Ben was saying to pay attention to her. She had no idea what Ben was talking about or why he was suddenly acting this way. His voice was full of madness. It was like he was stung, but there were no signs of any grievers being nearby. At least for now. She did a quick time check. They had a bit of time to spare but they needed to move soon if they wanted to get back into the glade by the time the doors close.

"They want her back." Ben continued to screech, and as Qiufeng peered out from behind the wall she saw him tearing at his hair. "They want her back they want her back they want her back…" He repeated in a crazed chant.

"Who's they?" Minho suddenly asked, stepping out from behind the ivy.

There was no indication whether or not she should stay back, so Qiufeng followed him cautiously, but made sure she was behind him.

"The creators." Ben snarled as he whipped around, not even the least surprised to see him.

"Minho!" Samuel's voice filled with relief as he ran over. "W-we were just running, until Ben just collapsed with a scream, when he got up he just started saying all these weird things."

"Bad bad bad bad bad…" Ben was whispering now, hands hanging limp as he swayed back and forth. All while keeping his eyes fixated on Qiufeng. He almost looked like a beast that was just about to pounce on its dinner. "You and the new boy, you're both bad."

"Thomas…?" she asked quietly as she reached down into her holster to touch one of the knife handles with her fingertips.

"Shut your face!" Ben screamed, clearly agitated by her presence and Qiufeng flinched at his sudden hostility. "He'll wanna take us home, he'll wanna get us out of the Maze and then they'll kill us all like the rest for the sake of _her_!"

Qiufeng felt her heart stop and her fingers froze in place, just barely curled around the knife handle. _Kill us all like the rest?_ What the hell did that even mean?

"Ben…" Minho said cautiously as he reached for his weapon as well.

However the movement was not gone unnoticed by Ben who immediately retreated a few steps. "Why're you targeting me?" he shrieked, "it's her you want! That boy too! They're not one of us!"

He took a few more steps backwards as Minho advanced a little more, speaking calmly to him. "Stop your yappin' Ben, there's clearly something wrong with your head and you need to get back to let the med-jacks fix you up."

"No no no no no!" The boy started to tear at his hair again, screaming almost incoherently. "You don't understand, y'all think both of them shanks are innocent just because they're good actors, just because one of 'em is a girl, but I know what they really are, if I get to the boy first no one else can get us out of the glade and after that I'll get her!"

"Ben!" Minho yelled but it was too late, the other had already disappeared into the pathway behind him, the pathway leading back to the glade.

"Shuck it." He growled as he quickly sheathed his knife. "We need to move. Fast."

Minho and Samuel ran down the pathway after Ben, but Qiufeng, still stunned by his words, stood still as if still unable to process what just happened. For a second it looked as if she wasn't going to move, but she pushed her unwanted thoughts to the back of her head. A life was as stake here. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she sprinted after the two boys.

As she ran, questions filled her mind even though she tried not to think about it. Were there more people that have been killed? It couldn't be within the glade though, everyone was accounted for since two years ago. But if it wasn't within the glade then… She felt her heart take a plunge. Before they all lost their memories…? But still she didn't understand. _For the sake of her?_ Why were people being killed for her? What the hell was even going on anymore?

After a while, she finally crossed into the doors back into the safety of the glade.

It wasn't hard to tell where Ben was, there was a huge commotion in the middle of the glade. Pushing her way through the crowd, she finally saw Ben with his knife unsheathed in the middle of the circle. His crazed eyes were fixated on Thomas who was standing opposite him, and he was _smiling._

"Ben," Alby's voice suddenly echoed across the commotion. Qiufeng looked up and gasped in horror. The other was holding a large bow, an arrow cocked for the kill, aiming straight at Ben. "I'm going to count to three."

"I keep telling y'all!" Ben shrieked, his focus shifting briefly to Alby for a second. "You're all _wrong,_ you should be killing this shank and that girl there!"

His gaze snapped back to Thomas who had taken an involuntary step backwards, seemingly horrified by what Ben was saying by the expression on his face.

Alby hadn't moved his weapon at all, still pointing it at Ben. "You leave that to me and the Keepers to figure out, shuck-face." His hands never wavered as he held the bow and Qiufeng even in the heat of the moment, briefly admired his ability to keep his cool even in this sort of situation. "Right now, get your scrawny butt down to Homestead."

"No! I saw him– both of them!" Ben screeched. "They're bad, bad bad bad... We have to kill them! Let me gut him!"

"One." Alby started.

"They're not one of us! Especially not her, so many died because of her!" The boy shouted, completely ignoring Alby. He was now speaking to the rest, turning his head frantically in search of support from the gladers around him. However all of them stayed silent, equally confused as Thomas and her about what he was yelling about.

"Two." Alby's voice grew louder, filled with warning.

"Ben," Thomas suddenly said, his voice shaking a little. "I'm not… I don't even know what–"

That was the last straw for the crazed boy. Ben screamed, a strangled gurgle of madness, and leaped into the air while slashing about wildly with his blade.

"Three!" Alby shouted.

Wire snapped, and something sliced through the air. There was a sickening, wet _thunk_ of it digging through flesh and skin and Qiufeng felt nausea pool within her gut. It was as if she had murdered Albert all over again.

The gladers all jumped back as Ben's head snapped violently to the left, twisting his body until he landed on stomach a little way from where Thomas stood. He made no sound, the long shaft of the arrow sticking out from somewhere on his face. His right pinky finger twitched. Blood seeped out slowly, lesser than what she would've imagined. Even so, Qiufeng had to look away to avoid being sick on the spot.

"Move along," Alby shouted over the whispers that were starting to emerge from the crowd. "Baggers'll take care of him tomorrow."

Qiufeng could feel some of the stares shifting towards her direction but her mind was too much in a whirl to even care about that. What just happened…? What did Ben even mean? Was she… An entirely different person before she lost her memories?

She looked up, seeking someone that could give her answers, but the gladers only gave her wary gazes in return.


	22. Sour

_Kill us all like the rest?_

 _What was Ben going on about?_

 _How did this even happen?_

Unable to continue listening to the rest of the meeting, Qiufeng crept down from the ledge and retreated into the darkness behind Homestead.

After what had happened with Ben, a meeting was held to try and make sense of what he had said. She was allowed inside the meeting room to give a testimony of her witness in the maze, however after hearing whatever she had to say, they told her to leave. Presumably to talk about her. She had listened in for the first ten minutes before realising that they weren't coming to any conclusions, and just bringing up more questions.

Questions like whether she was a threat to them, or about her past. They had asked Gally if he could recall more of who she was since he was stung before, but all he remembered was her and her brother. Apparently according to him, he vaguely recalled that they were always kept away from the rest of the children in a separate room and had only caught a few glimpses of them through a thick panel of glass. They were always together and the creators spoke occasionally about them in front of the young gladers – about how they were the hope for something.

But it wasn't just Ben and what he said that was puzzling everyone. She had heard something else bizarre had happened while they were away from the glade from the meeting earlier and some gladers that she had talked to. This afternoon, the newbie alarm had sounded even though Thomas had just arrived yesterday, and about half an hour later the box had suddenly come up again. They weren't sure what they were expecting, but there really was someone inside the box as usual. But… It was an unconscious girl in the box.

On first sight it seemed as though she was dead, they told her. Her skin was a deathly pale, almost translucent and she looked like she wasn't breathing. Either that her breaths were barely noticeable at that moment. The whole glade had run over to have a looksee and Alby looked frustrated. Thomas seemed panicked, they said, because Alby was taking out his confusion on the poor fella and interrogating him a little more fiercely than he should have. It made Qiufeng wonder for a moment if Alby was trying to make up for that earlier when Ben was attacking Thomas. Either way, halfway through the questions the girl suddenly sat up as if she had been awake the entire time and she spoke.

"Everything is going to change."

She said before collapsing back unto the ground, one fist shooting up into the air, her arm unnaturally rigid. Newt had pried her fingers open, revealing a small note that had five words messily scrawled across the paper in thick black ink as if the author didn't have a lot of time to write it. "She's the last one. Ever."

It freaked her out a little, although under different circumstances she would've been kinda happy that there was another girl in the glade. The note was rather ambiguous and could've meant a lot of things, but the most straightforward interpretation was that she was the last kid sent up forever. That probably meant they HAD to find a way out soon right? They couldn't stay inside here especially if the supplies were going to stop coming.

Qiufeng slumped down unto the ground against a tree. So much had happened today, and for some reason she had a really weird feeling in her gut that everything wasn't a coincidence. It didn't seem too farfetched that the creators were all behind this, to push them to find a way out. However it's been three years and the runners have found nothing. It didn't even make sense that they were here in the first place, she couldn't think of any other reason but perhaps a sick television series that was coming to an end or some morbid experiment by mad scientists.

It was just too much to take in. She sighed and let her hands fall to the side of her body. There was an unfamiliar feeling against her left hand where grass should've been and she blinked, glancing to the side. When she lifted her hand, there was a small folded piece of paper lying on the ground.

That was weird. Perhaps it was one of the notes from the map room. Qiufeng picked it up, unfolding it in a deft movement without a second thought.

Her eyes widened at the thick black ink that was scribbled across the paper. It was the note that the supposedly dead girl had in her hand. The exact words that her friends had recited her earlier, they were right in front of her eyes.

 _She's the last one. Ever._

It sent a chill down her spine as she peered at it closely. Then her nose picked up something and she made a face at a faint sour-ish smell that was coming from the paper. Ugh, disgusting. She turned away. Why was it even out here in the first place? It should've been with Newt or Alby, this was a really important clue. It didn't make sense that an important item such as this would be lying around randomly at the back of homestead. She glanced around to see if there were signs of anyone nearby that might've carelessly dropped the note, but she was alone and the keepers were all still in the meeting.

Qiufeng held out the note in front of her thoughtfully as one of the gladers lit up a torch a little way up ahead in preparation for the night. She'll just hold onto it until the keepers were done and probably pass it to Newt. Alby was way too frequently in his bad moods recently and she didn't want to deal with that, especially not after all that had happened today.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder why the note seemed so untidy. The creators didn't seem very meticulous. Now that there was light coming from the nearby torch, she could tell there were tiny splatters of black ink around the note and some parts of the paper seemed uneven in texture. As if someone had split water on it when writing.

However on closer inspection the wrinkled surface was almost a little too careful, too… Unnatural.

Something in her mind clicked and she scrambled up and forward towards the torch, almost tripping and tumbling headfirst into the flames in her franticness. She grasped at the base of the torch for a moment to stabilize herself before taking a second to calm down. Qiufeng stared into the hungry flames that were licking at the night sky. Then she glanced down at the note and took a deep breath, holding it a little way up from the torch.

She waited.

Qiufeng took a moment to ensure that her index finger and thumb were carefully positioned such that her hand wouldn't catch fire by accident.

Another few seconds passed.

Nothing happened and it seemed as though she had thought wrong about her suspicion. She sighed and closed her eyes, a little disappointed. She had thought that perhaps there was something more to the paper. Opening her eyes again, she was about to pull back the note when suddenly, just barely, brown started to spread across the paper where the surface was uneven before.

"I knew it!" she squealed to herself quietly as her outstretched hand trembled in excitement. The sourish smell and the way the wrinkled surface of the note seemed too neat. It was invisible ink written in lemon juice after all! It seemed a little weird that she would remember this all of a sudden, but she was too excited to care.

The brown soon started forming into visible letters and she squinted at the paper, whispering to herself softly as the words became clear.

"Only… In... Danger… You will… L..."

She frowned at the last word that had not yet formed, while endless possibilities filled her mind.

 _Learn? Land? Laugh?_

There was a sudden metallic clicking sound to her right and something just about brushed past her head, making her jump in terror. The note fluttered out of her hand and she panicked, her body reacting instinctively to try and catch it before it flew away. However her fingers fell short and it landed right in the middle of the fire where the hungry flames gobbled it up immediately.

Qiufeng just stared at the flames and the dying note, before her attention was grabbed by a flash of silver from above. A beetle blade scuttled out of sight, just over the roof of Homestead.

Turning back to the fire, the note had already been burnt to a crisp.

She had just destroyed something that could potentially have been a very vital piece of information.


	23. Good Friends

AN: I'm really sorry about the late update guys, I know some of you have been asking for faster updates but work has been horrendous, I'll try to see if I can get a quicker update up by next week tho! ;A; I hope you all understand!

* * *

"Are you two even listening to me?" Newt looked over at his two friends who had joined him at the kitchen.

He had been talking for at least five minutes now, only to realize that neither of them were even listening to him. Thomas was listlessly staring into the distance, his face just barely short of slipping off the back of his palm and looked like he had the life sucked out of him during the night previously. Qiufeng looked… Stressed. She was staring at something in the distance with deadly fixation with her chin resting on both her hands and he didn't think he had seen her have bigger eye bags in all of the time they had spent here.

Thomas was the first to respond, snapping out of his daze to slowly glance at him. "Yeah, sorry. Couldn't sleep last night."

Newt tried to be sympathetic. "Can't blame you there." He turned to Qiufeng and Thomas' gaze followed. Her gaze hadn't shifted an inch and she only seemed to be getting more and more stressed by the second. "I'm guessing you're not the only one."

Her focus wavered as she came to a realization that they were talking about her and her gaze shifted to them. She seemed to be indecisive about something and instead chose to give an awkward laugh and smile. "I'm fine," she said lightly as she casually grabbed the lunchbox that was set on the table. "I was uhh, up thinking about… Stuff." Qiufeng laughed again as she slowly backed away towards the open glade.

Newt and Thomas exchanged glances.

"Also I think I hear the runners gathering, I'll catch up with you guys later!" she ended off before turning tail and running towards the mapping room.

"Does she know she's a terrible liar?" Thomas asked as she disappeared behind the metal door.

"Don't think so." Newt shrugged. "Anyway come along now greenie, Winston's waiting at the Bloodhouse."

* * *

Qiufeng shut the door to the mapping room hastily, leaning her back against it afterwards. She had contemplated telling Newt about the note yesterday, but after no one realized that it went missing she failed to find the courage to bring up the topic.

She couldn't possibly tell them that she had destroyed such a precious clue without even managing to see the entire message! Qiufeng had decided at about three in the morning that she shouldn't tell the gladers and just attempt to try and solve it herself. Her hands pressed against the side of her face harshly and she shut her eyes tightly. She would be ostracized, banished without a second thought, kicked out of the glade! Then she would be ripped apart by the grievers outside and everyone will be trapped inside forever because she had burnt that vital clue. And it would be all her fault.

"You alright?"

Qiufeng snapped out of her daze and glanced up quickly to see Lester standing there. He seemed somewhat concerned. "Yes!" she replied quickly with a bright smile and without a second thought, hoping that she didn't appear nervous.

"You sure? You look like you've gonna explode any moment now," the blond laughed as he eyed his fellow runner who was obviously stressed out by something.

"I, well that is…" Qiufeng laughed awkwardly as a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. Was the map room always this hot? She glanced sideways, hoping to find something to change the subject to.

Just when she thought she would have to spill the beans and get kicked out of the glade as griever food, there was a soft creaking sound from behind her. A soft gust of air blew into the room and when she turned behind Tim was there behind her, his head poking in from outside. "Ah!" he exclaimed when he saw Lester and Qiufeng inside the room, his eyes widening in surprise. "I found them!" he called out to someone else outside as he disappeared back out.

The mapping room door swung fully open after he did so and there stood the rest of the runners. Minho was there as well, standing a little further away with his arms folded. He looked slightly annoyed and Qiufeng wondered if it was because they were late. "What're you guys even doing inside?" Dave asked, one side of his mouth quirking up a little and his green eyes twinkling with amusement. "Are you really going to ask them that you shuckface?" Tim laughed out loud as he brushed aside his long black fringe, without waiting for an answer from either Lester or her.

Qiufeng felt herself quickly turn a bright red as she realized what they probably thought they were doing, and why Minho was annoyed. "I-It's n-not…!" she tried to say quickly to salvage the situation, but she was tripping over her words too much for them to make sense. "Seriously guys, I was just reviewing the maps from yesterday." Lester laughed as he too joined the group.

"If you say so." Tim shrugged with a cheeky grin, his brown eyes mischievous.

"R-really!" she insisted, her glance flickering back and forth between the group and Minho to check the latter's expression.

"Stop teasing her guys, can't you see the poor girl's face is practically a tomato already?" Stan chided as he jumped down from his seat on a wooden box and approached the group. She gave him a weak smile of appreciation. "Not to mention, Minho's face seems to be getting blacker by the second too," he added in a low voice when he was near enough. The group eyed their keeper warily before coming to a silent agreement that they should be quiet for now.

"Ready?" Minho asked as they all gathered in front of him, voice a little ticked off. "Today y'all will be running solo, there way too much ground we haven't covered over the past few days and we need y'all to grow up if by some shuck miracle an exit starts appearing." He finished and motioned for them to do any last minute preparations they might need to do before they left. It wasn't like he had the right to feel like this, after all he was the one that pushed her away. But then again he couldn't help feeling a little annoyed.

Qiufeng felt a strange sense of excitement fill her as the runners started doing any last prep before they left the glade. She was going to be alone today, which was great because she could use some alone time to calm down and think after all that has happened during the past few days. Perhaps she could even figure out the meaning of the note later and stop stressing out over it. A little part of her protested, wanted to be alone with Minho again but she pushed the feeling to the back of her head. Emotions could come in later. For now, escaping was priority.

Still, she was a little surprised that her fellow runners were still being pretty friendly with her. Considering what had happened yesterday, she was sort of expecting to be shunned by them as well. The other gladers had started to try and keep a distance from her, who knows what the creators would do if someone got too close to something they considered precious. But her team, it was as if yesterday never happened at all.

"Something on your mind?" someone asked and she looked up to see Tim watching her curiously. "You've been acting pretty off, I heard from Newt as well when I passed by him earlier."

Qiufeng blinked, wondering if it was that obvious since morning. "Oh um," she laughed, "It's honestly nothing."

"If there's something weighing down on your mind you should get it off your back before you go out," Dave suggested as he stood up from double checking his bag. "Since we're running the maze solo today you wouldn't want to have any unnecessary distractions."

She took a moment to consider his offer, he did have a point. Even if she couldn't share the secret message on the note with them, she could at least ask them why they seemed as if they weren't bothered about yesterday as much as some others were. "So like…" she began slowly. "Like y'know, I'm just surprised you guys are still so casual around me after yesterday."

There was a short silence and for a second she panicked and wondered if perhaps she should've just kept her mouth shut. What if they were just pretending to be alright with her? For the sake of it being less awkward and all since they were on the same team currently. What if they were just-

"I don't see a reason to act any differently." Dave's voice cut through her thoughts and she looked up in confusion. "I mean yeah sure maybe you are some precious thing to the creators, but just by putting you down here it obviously means that beside your value, they intend to use you as well."

"So that sort of puts us all in the same boat." Tim glanced upwards thoughtfully as he swung his backpack on and stood up. "Besides you've been here long enough for most of us to know that you're not that sort of person… Either that or you're an actress with talent from the Gods."

"But you can't even hold yourself together just for one morning." Stan laughed out loud. "Now hurry up before Minho kills all of us before the grievers can."

Qiufeng felt herself break into an appreciative smile. She wasn't say exactly very close to the four of them, she had only spent time with them in a group of friends. But they had spent a good deal of time together, and it was only then that she realized that perhaps they were all really good friends to her even if not the closest. She took a deep breath as she stood up and faced the open walls, her courage renewed. It seemed as though everything was going to be just fine.


End file.
